hows my lighting?

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Owain4

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jan 9, 2011
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amongst the trees
I recently purchased a 72gallon aquarium that was a saltwater tank, i changed it to freshwater, i've got some sagitaria subulata, dwarf hairgrass, some riccia (tied on driftwood) also a pond water lily, and im hoping to get some other hornwort or coontail plants in the tank. i have native fish in it, so im not too worried about nutrients (i have root tabs under most of the plants, and i plan on dosing some ferts pretty soon)
anyway the lighting on the tank now is
2 48" 10,000k coralife super daylight flourescent (unsure the wattage )
i can add another 48" flourescent if i need to, do you guys suggest more light? different bulbs? does the Kelvin scale affect plants ? if so is the 10,000k enough? im worried the lily wont get enough sunlight. thank you
 
The Kelvin from what i understand can affect the color of a plant... although at 10,000K that would be basically the brightest you can go as far as florescent is concerned...

But what is more important if to also know the wattage of the lights, the reason for this is, it will help determine if its strong enough to penetrate to the bottom of your tank...

Sorry if that wasn't what you were looking for, but hope it helps some what...
 
10,000k is fine for plants. Are these T5, T5 HO or older T12 lights? That will be the deciding factor on whether you have too much light or not enough. If you are not injecting CO2 you want to stick with low light or else you will have an algae factory on your hands.
 
Fat Homer said:
The Kelvin from what i understand can affect the color of a plant... although at 10,000K that would be basically the brightest you can go as far as florescent is concerned...

But what is more important if to also know the wattage of the lights, the reason for this is, it will help determine if its strong enough to penetrate to the bottom of your tank...

Sorry if that wasn't what you were looking for, but hope it helps some what...
Click to expand...

10000K puts out less lumens then a matching 6700K bulb. Therefor, not the brightest.
 
Owain4 said:
I recently purchased a 72gallon aquarium that was a saltwater tank, i changed it to freshwater, i've got some sagitaria subulata, dwarf hairgrass, some riccia (tied on driftwood) also a pond water lily, and im hoping to get some other hornwort or coontail plants in the tank. i have native fish in it, so im not too worried about nutrients (i have root tabs under most of the plants, and i plan on dosing some ferts pretty soon)
anyway the lighting on the tank now is
2 48" 10,000k coralife super daylight flourescent (unsure the wattage )
i can add another 48" flourescent if i need to, do you guys suggest more light? different bulbs? does the Kelvin scale affect plants ? if so is the 10,000k enough? im worried the lily wont get enough sunlight. thank you
Click to expand...

If you are running T8 bulbs, that is fine for lighting for the plants you listed. Definitely start dosing ferts, as many of the ones you listed are not heavy root feeders.
 
hornworts keep growing and growing like the energizer bunny. lots of trimming lol. sounds like plenty of light. start injecting Co2 soon.
 
So would another bulb be over kill? i dont want to get another algae problem on due to the fact im not running c02 and i have alot of light. the inhabitants of the tank are 2 yellow perch 4" a white sucker at 2" about 10 minnows, i thought that might be an appropriate amount of c02 coming from them. so what area of Kelvin range would you guys buy bulbs in if the watts are all the same?
 
Owain4 said:
So would another bulb be over kill? i dont want to get another algae problem on due to the fact im not running c02 and i have alot of light. the inhabitants of the tank are 2 yellow perch 4" a white sucker at 2" about 10 minnows, i thought that might be an appropriate amount of c02 coming from them. so what area of Kelvin range would you guys buy bulbs in if the watts are all the same?
Click to expand...

We have no idea because you have not answered the questions above, what type of flourescent fixture is it. In general Fish/atmosphere will not provide enough CO2 for anything with too much light or moderately planted. 6700k is optimum.
 
like i said i have no clue what the type of fixture it is. all i know is that its a 48" fixture with
"2 48" 10,000k coralife super daylight flourescent" i have no idea if they are T5 T8 etc. thats why i started asking questions on here about lighting
 
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