Mike's 45 gallon long (48"x12"x19") planted tank

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
Just like maintaining a house! Update something, think it looks great, once its done -realize you don't like the look. Then look to change just one little thing. The next thing you know, it's back to square one!! This is definitely interesting to follow. Every time I get a sub update for this thread, I think hmmm what's Mike going to move now :):)

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Today I managed to hit another local fish store that's known for plants, they must have just gotten a shipment in because they were stocked with plants!!! I managed to pick up 10 broadleaf sagittaria, and 2 clumps of cabomba all for $23!!! I plan to work on the scape a bit this weekend, and move the plants around for a better layout. I'm also thinking of swapping out the driftwood piece for a different one that would work into the layout a little better.
 
So I rescaped the tank, added a different piece of driftwood, pretty much both cabomba and the 10 broadleaf sag died off, they were bad to begin with. The tank needs some siphoning to clear out the "dust" from the flourite, then I can take pictures!!!!
 
So I'm waiting for someone to pay me back the money I lent them, and I'm thinking of changing my light fixture... I currently have a 48" Odyssea T5HO 4x54w with built in timer, but the first 2 "sockets" have blown out leaving me with only 108w of total lighting with a crappy reflector which gives me around 40 PAR if I'm lucky lol. The fixture I'm thinking of getting is a 48" Green Element EVO 6500k LED fixture with 32x3w LED's which'll give me around 65 PAR @ 17" and because my 45 gallon tank is 48"x12"x19" I'll get at least 64 PAR lol.

The only bad thing about going with the LED fixtures is that it's harder to switch out the bulbs, and with T5HO it's easy to interchange the spectrums that plants need. But I could get the LED fixture, and use the T5HO fixture for a single WavePoint Ultra Growth Wave bulb which will give me both the 420nm and 660nm spectrums that plants use for chlorophyll A & chlorophyll B.
 
Have you looked at the finnex planted + led? I have that and the Current Sat+ on my 24 inch tall 110. The Sat + is mostly for effects. The led lights are produced to be energy efficient with anywhere from 25,000 to 40,000 hours, depending on the duration of your lighting period. I use a ramp timer.

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Yeah, I'm a big fan of Finnex LED's, but I've seen the EVO in action and the guys tank was superb. Plus the EVO has brighter LED's than the Planted+ which is what I'm looking for because I'm looking to make this a high tech tank, and next months agenda is to get a co2 system for the tank, then all I have to do is get more plants!!!
 
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