Planting my tank

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
The Masked Shadow said:
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48" StingRAY 2 Silver Aquarium LED - Finnex

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This is my light.

It seems like it’s a 50/50 or around that shot for my plants to grow under this light. What kind of shop light do you recommend/are talking about.
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Whatever is on sale! Literally...there is very little difference between them. They are 4 feet long, use standard 4-foot LED retrofit tubes. You want the 2-tube style. Some need to be hard-wired, but most have a plug and an on/off switch. I just plug them into a switched outlet. I like the ones that have a reflector shade so the light is all directed downwards rather than blinding you off to the side.

They are not intended for wet locations; you need to use a GFCI outlet or GFCI powerbar for safety, but you should already be doing that for your filters, heaters, etc. Don't even think about ignoring that part!
 
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Would this work? Would I suspend it from the ceiling?

What are small green plants I can put in the substrate?
 
Well, that's not a fixture, it's just a lamp, i.e.a tube, that goes into a fixture. It's a "lightbulb" rather than a "fixture".

And...it's the wrong kind. "Ballast compatible" means it is designed to plug directly into an existing ballast-equipped fluorescent fixture. It's for easy upgrading of those old fixtures. You need to get a new fixture, so you sure don't want to buy a fluorescent type. You want a new LED fixture, which allows you to buy standard LED tubes, no ballast involved.

Yeah, hang it, build a hood, attach it to a bracket overhead, whatever you prefer. The higher you hang it, the wider the spread of the light, which might be good if you are growing pothos or other emersed plants...but the intensity of the light hitting the bottom of the tank decreases as a function of the distance squared between the light and the tank. Double the distance, and the light intensity falls to 1/4.
 
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jjohnwm said:
Well, that's not a fixture, it's just a lamp, i.e.a tube, that goes into a fixture. It's a "lightbulb" rather than a "fixture".

And...it's the wrong kind. "Ballast compatible" means it is designed to plug directly into an existing ballast-equipped fluorescent fixture. It's for easy upgrading of those old fixtures. You need to get a new fixture, so you sure don't want to buy a fluorescent type. You want a new LED fixture, which allows you to buy standard LED tubes, no ballast involved.

Yeah, hang it, build a hood, attach it to a bracket overhead, whatever you prefer. The higher you hang it, the wider the spread of the light, which might be good if you are growing pothos or other emersed plants...but the intensity of the light hitting the bottom of the tank decreases as a function of the distance squared between the light and the tank. Double the distance, and the light intensity falls to 1/4.
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The goal for me would be to save money…so would this ‘fixture’ work? How do I grow pothos?
 
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jjohnwm said:
Vals and other "easy" plants have usually done well for me, using only cheap fluorescent shoplites for many years. Only started switching over to LED lamps in the past few years; I wait until a ballast or fluorescent lamp burns out, and then discard the original ballast and re-wire the fixture with retrofit LED tubes and carry on. I also have a tank that is lit with a portable LED work light suspended overhead! :) It grows guppy grass, duckweed and Amazon Swords without a problem, and the "sunlight shimmer" effect from the single-point source is gorgeous. I'm sure that if I increased the power and/or quality of light I would experience far better growth. But the plants don't die, stay green, seem to do okay...good enough for me! :)



It blows my mind to learn that there are expensive aquarium-specific lighting fixtures that won't even produce enough illumination to grow plants! Maybe that light is inexpensive by the standards of other aquarium fixtures, but I'll bet that it is still way more costly than shoplites; on sale at Rona for C$35, which is currently less than US$28. Not a high-tech sexy modern gadget, but for a young fellow like the Shadow, just starting out with planted tanks...still a viable option for easy plants.

Maybe leave the Finnex light on throughout the day for observation, and then have an additional light (like the shoplight) turn on/off with a timer for a few extra hours each day for the plants?
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You’re right…plants will grow well from any source of light that is around 6500K and has enough intensity to provide an acceptable PAR value near the substrate.

It doesn’t have to be expensive or name brand either…there are off brand leds that are good: Aquaneat, Hygger, Nicrew. You can even use fluorescent screw in bulbs or shop lights with the right temperature and intensity.

My suggestion is just that his particular expensive name brand Finnex light is the wrong model. The Stingray is bright enough to light the tank but won’t be able to produce enough PAR in a 2 foot tall tank for good photosynthesis near the bottom of the tank.
 
Another plant that easily grows well (for me), it gets tall, and folds over at the surface is Cryptocoryne cf usteriana. When is happy it it very aggressive, colonizing everything. But it can be tamed. No CO2, regular Finnex planted+ lights, Seachem Fluorish + root tabs sometimes.
At either side in a 125, pool sand, not very thick.

IMG_0021 crop.jpg

Yet another is Hygrophila sp. (dont know name), but grows quite well, again average lights, no particular care. It can be seen in the background center in the photo above, but better in the photo below, which was done a couple of days after a regular cutting of the tops with scissors.
Cheers!

IMG_0381.jpg
 
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I have always had luck with Val, never using ferts, or complicated lighting, and just PF sand as substrate, hard water.
Above is a tank I had in the states using 40 watt Home Depot shop lights, below only direct sunlight.
FAAB52EA-3199-4621-A73F-2A4AE7756279_1_201_a.jpeg
I've also had luck attaching Anubius and Java to water logged wood.
Anubius below (also no ferts, no fancy lighting)
It even flowered
 
phreeflow said:
My suggestion is just that his particular expensive name brand Finnex light is the wrong model. The Stingray is bright enough to light the tank but won’t be able to produce enough PAR in a 2 foot tall tank for good photosynthesis near the bottom of the tank.
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No argument here! I am in the bottom 5 percentile group of gardeners, whether dry land or aquatic. I only suggested plants that were able to survive despite me, rather than because of me.

I was just taken aback to hear of an actual aquarium fixture that won't easily support a planted tank.

And speaking of un-green thumbness...I always take with a grain of salt any suggestions that a particular plant species will or won't do well for me. Some, like Java Fern, are described as easy, bullet-proof, hardy, etc...and I easily kill them within a few weeks. Others grow like weeds for me, so I transplant some to other tanks, with ostensibly very similar conditions...and they die within weeks.

I just try a species out; if it lives and grows, well, that's fantastic! And if it doesn't, which is much more likely...no problem, just don't buy that one again.

As W.C.Fields said: If at first you don't succeed...quit! No sense being a damned fool about it. :)
 
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