i have a 50/50 compact fl. bulb on my 20 gallon. would the actinic harm, or do good to plants? it's a 36watt strip i believe. also, with a planted aquarium, would i have to do water changes as often as with a normal tank? i wouldn't think so because there will be so many plants that you wouldn't be able to get down in the gravel as normal and because the plants would absorb most of the waste. i plan on doing some german rams and neons and smaller tetras maybe even a few barbs. i also plan on doing a DIY CO2 system with the coke bottle and air stone. i've done that before and it was fine. i'm pretty new to planted aquariums so i'm looking for some info. thanks.
50/50 bulb for planted aquarium hurt?
- Thread starter danepatrick
- Start date
the 50/50 do very well in a planted tank because they are insanely bright and in the long run that is what is most important for most FW plants
actinics bulbs normally make more algae grow from my experience i would say either the 6500k or 6700k 10max would do the plants best i use 6500k on all my tanks with no problem
yeah the 50/50 bulb is fine IMO. i have one 50/50 and two daylight bulbs. i think the daylight bulbs are closer to 10000k but i could be wrong. freshwater plants definatly grow better in daylight than actinic lite. i tried an actinic lite in place of the 50/50, but it looked all wierd, not in a good way. the plants and tanks color were all washed out etc.
I'd vote to not use it..
IME it will help algae grow; and the fact that 1/2 your light is actinic, you'll be holding your plants back as they try to outcompete the algae for nutrients.
ultimately see what happens, consensus is that you'll get more algae growth than plant. it probably depends on what's in your water and what kind of plants.. just watch and see if you get a lot of algae.. I suspect you'll be switching the bulb tho.
IME it will help algae grow; and the fact that 1/2 your light is actinic, you'll be holding your plants back as they try to outcompete the algae for nutrients.
ultimately see what happens, consensus is that you'll get more algae growth than plant. it probably depends on what's in your water and what kind of plants.. just watch and see if you get a lot of algae.. I suspect you'll be switching the bulb tho.