I have a 20 gallon long tank, and have been off and on buying live plants and for some reason I cannot get them to stay alive. I have some mopani driftwood in there also which has seriously darkened my water with tannins which i do not like. My Lighting is a ZooMed Reef Sun 50/50 full spectrum light, with 6500k. Im not sure what the problem is, they are anubias plants so they should be very hardy... what do you all think?
Why wont my plants stay alive?
- Thread starter Electric45
- Start date
it is only 15 watts. really? i thought the light was usable but just enhances a different color.... im not sure though.
your wattage is too low. even tho anubias is low light. a low light tank is supposed to be between 1-2 wpg. so you probably need more wattage. if you cant get a new one now i would makes sure the plants are directly under the bulb.Electric45;3394643; said:
thats kinda true as different color lights are reflected differently off surfaces, so thats the color you see.
but plants need to absorb light to create energy from photosynthesis, and they absorb some spectrums better then others.
plants usually do better under redder bulbs usually.i like 6500k to 10000k for plants, some people go down to 3000k but thats just to red for my tastes
edit: plants does absorb some blue light growing vegatatively but in not sure how far down the scale there absorbtion continues. but ive never seen plants grown with actinic bulbs(the at the very end of the scale), i heard they dont do well tho
15W on a 20G is not much light, but a 20-long is a shallow tank, so you should have enough light to keep anubias alive . . . but an earlier post was correct, since half of that light is actinic, it is pretty much wasted in your tank
lose the 50/50 bulb and try a Flora Sun or Tropic Sun bulb (if you want to stick with Zoo Med bulbs) . . . at least then you'll get more mileage from your wattage . . .
if that still doesn't work, then you will have to upgrade your lighting . . .
lose the 50/50 bulb and try a Flora Sun or Tropic Sun bulb (if you want to stick with Zoo Med bulbs) . . . at least then you'll get more mileage from your wattage . . .
if that still doesn't work, then you will have to upgrade your lighting . . .
http://www.aquatic-eden.com/2007/12/understanding-full-spectrum-aquarium.html
this is probably a better explanation as mine was probably bad and had some misinformation in it as i havent been really into plants for a while
you may be able just to add another fixture to it so the plants grow.
this is probably a better explanation as mine was probably bad and had some misinformation in it as i havent been really into plants for a while
you may be able just to add another fixture to it so the plants grow.
no it wont. i dont know why it doesnt work because youd think the plant would get more energy, people have tried that before and but it just doesnt work. im guessing the light threshold is to low to successfully activate the chlorophyll, but i have no clue if thats right.Electric45;3394827; said: