LIGHTING ???

[TNTtropical]

I am in the process of changing over my 80 gallon to a planted tank. I'd like to stock it heavily with a wide variety of plants. I have a 6 bulb fixture t5 light. Would that me strong enough for most types of freshwater plants? I know i should get the plant bulbs i guess, but would a LED fixture be better?

Thanks in advance everyone

 

[Fat Homer]

With 6 T-5 bulbs that will almost definitely put you into the high light zone given your tank isn't too tall...

The main difference i would say with T5 and LED lights are that LED lights don't have a very good spread, so basically you need all your plants that require a lot of light directly under your LED lights, where as with florescent you can get away with out placing directly underneath because the light spreads better...

Also having the right type of bulbs makes a huge difference, and due to the high light of your tank, you may also find you'll need to add pressurized Co2 for some plants... Either way, do lots and lots of research first is the only solid advise i can give you, since planted tanks are fun, but can be really frustrating as well when algae breaks out...

 

[Manu8__too]

With a 6 bulb T5HO fixture, you're going to be in the very "high light" category. That being said, you'll almost certainly need to inject pressurized Co2 if you don't want massive amounts of algae in your tank. That, or you'll have to have a very short photoperiod in order to avoid this. While most of us use 6500K bulbs in our planted tanks, plants are able to adapt to different spectrums of lighting. There are certain LED fixtures designed to help grow plants. Does your 6 bulb fixture allow you to run 2-3 bulbs rather than all 6? If so, this will decrease your need for high Co2.

 

[xxUnRaTeDxxRkOxx]

T5HO fixtures outbest any LED period, this is because most LED fixture for planted tanks tend only come with a single spectrum to them whereas T5HO fixtures make it easier to supply multiple spectrums of light. While most people will use 6500k bulbs in their light fixtures, plants actually require a broad spectrum of lighting for healthy growth...

Plants have 2 chlorophyll stages to them , chlorophyll A and chlorophyll B, and they both peak at different stages of light. This picture will help in understanding this...

Now I would use 4 bulbs in your light fixture, and here's a list of them from front to back in the fixture

Front bulb 6500k
420nm Actinic bulb
12,000k White Actinic bulb
WavePoint Ultra Growth Wave Bulb

This will help to target all of the peaks in both of the plants chlorophyll stages, which is what you want to do... Now I'm sure someone will ask themself "WTF is a WavePoint Ultra Growth Wave?" well, it's a specially designed T5HO bulb that inhibits the peaks needed for live plants to flourish, and also for saltwater coral growth...

Here's the bulb...

Now here's my lighting schedule for all of my planted tanks...

8am 2 front bulbs turn on
10am 2 rear bulbs turn on giving me a 4 bulb light burst for noon hightlight
2pm front 2 bulbs shut off
4pm 2 rear bulbs shut off

This gives me 8 hours of light for my planted tanks, and my plants all flourish, I've even had new plants that were almost completely melted that I bought and this lighting regime has brought them all back to health.

Of course that's combined with sufficient Co2, and fertilizers...

 

[HybridHerp]

Even with 4 bulbs I'd say you'd want some co2 injection, but I like the giesemann bulbs. Double the price of the wave points but worth it. Although I do use the wave points and like them as well. Depends on what you want. But I generally go for plant specific bulbs or things that are between 5000K-10000K...not really a fan of 12000K on planted tanks.