Metal Halides on FW 125G planted?

[SkySouza]

So I am moving my discus to a new 125 G five foot long tank. I recently sold my 37 G tank, stand and canopy that my discus were in before and a 75 G tank and stand. the deal was a come up i got a better LARGER tank and made $200

As of right now I have the 125 coming in next week. I bought the tank stand sump and a few other things for $150 off of craigslist. steal of a deal.

Now, here's the catch. the tank was previously a saltwater and the fella who owned it before has a thousand dollar metal halide/flourescent hood. I know if I clean the tank thoroughly my discus shouldn't have a problem with their new home however, i have a large amount of live plants that are going in the 125 as well.

I have been keeping planted tanks for years now and have never used co2 and only had a power compact light system on it.

Should I look into getting a new light or is it possible to have a flourishing freshwater planted tank with metal halide lighting?

 

[Zander_The_RBP]

HOLY CRAP!! imagine how fast your plants will grow with metal halides and a co2 system!! Of course you can use metal halides but you might need to swap out the flouescent bulbs on the light to sometihng between 6700-10000k cause chances are a few will be actinic which dosen't do much for plant growth (although they do look very nice)


go out and get a co2 system(buy one or make a DIY one) though becuase your going to get huge algae problems if you don't

 

[JakeH]

The MH lamps are full-spectrum, so if it were me, I'd fill the flourescent sockets with something like Power-Glo or 10,000k lamps. Something thats geared more towards fish colors or moonlight. Your plants will probably be good with just the MH...

 

[MDK500]

Metal Halides work very well for plants, many experts use them religiously. Just make sure you're not using actinic bulbs, those give off a blue-ish light that will not help the plants at all.

 

[three-fingers]

HOLY CRAP!! imagine how fast your plants will grow with metal halides and a co2 system!! Of course you can use metal halides but you might need to swap out the flouescent bulbs on the light to sometihng between 6700-10000k cause chances are a few will be actinic which dosen't do much for plant growth (although they do look very nice)


go out and get a co2 system(buy one or make a DIY one) though becuase your going to get huge algae problems if you don't

Actually, plants do great with actinics, they use the light in that spectrum very well. Just look at any graph that shows the absorption spectra of photosynthetic pigments.

There's a lot of misinformation out there, like "you need 2wpg to grow plants" and "10,000k bulbs/actinics aren't good for plants and encourage algae" it's simply not true.

If you like the effect of actinics, keep them in. I use them in some of my tanks.

The CO2 part is very important with the higher light though.

 

[JakeH]

I agree that plants can use the light from actinic lamps, but thats kind of a waste of wattage, since those lamps put out such a narrow spectrum... A wider-spectrum lamp would provide more usable light for the same wattage.

 

[SkySouza]

Question two: How much is my electricity bill going to go up? lol

Also I've been warned that because the halides are so bright my discus won't be happy. Prolly end up hiding all the time. Any comments?

 

[JakeH]

Both of those are valid concerns... I'd say its very possible that your bill will grow, but that depends on the wattage. I know nothing about discus.

 

[SkySouza]

bump

 

[mgk]

Actually, plants do great with actinics, they use the light in that spectrum very well. Just look at any graph that shows the absorption spectra of photosynthetic pigments.

There's a lot of misinformation out there, like "you need 2wpg to grow plants" and "10,000k bulbs/actinics aren't good for plants and encourage algae" it's simply not true.

If you like the effect of actinics, keep them in. I use them in some of my tanks.

The CO2 part is very important with the higher light though.

depends on the actinic bulb and the chlorophyll in the plant, chlorophyll a does very bad in 460nm actinic, chlorophyll b does bad in 420 nm