I'm lost! =(

jbrianchamberlin · 09-08-2009, 01:15 PM

I'm having concerns about lighthing. I've learned that I'm just using a 40 watt flurorescent light and tha'ts not good enough for my plants. So now what? Should I buy another light strip? That still wouldn't give me enough light. I'm kinda lost here... I want to run a heavily decently planted tank and am thinking I should have gone another direction with the lighting. Also should I even consider co2 dosing? I know next to nothing about it except that some people have created these systems on their own. Personally, I think the units made at home are pretty ugly... but I don't want to spend a fortune either. Can anyone help me out on these two topics?

ZeroSystem · 09-09-2009, 02:23 AM

I am not the person to help you with plants, Jay is the man when it comes to this kinda stuff. I do know that everyone is likely going to need a lot more information about your tank in order to give you a good answer though. Some things such as tank size, latest water parameters (PH, Nitrates, GH, ect.) and all that kind of stuff.

louistheloach · 09-12-2009, 11:07 PM

He's right, we do need more info. but you have some decisions to make as well.

You can have a heavily planted tank of plants that love low light conditions, although there are fewer varieties, some crypts, apons, anubias.

You can also move up to medium light 1.5-2.5 wpg roughly and have more choices, quite a few more choices - lots of crypts and aponogetans love that medium lighting, several mosses(besides java), cabomba is doing great in my tank, swords, sags. Under this lighting some plants will do well without CO2, but all will benefit from it.

When you move up to the high or bright light conditions, since there will be greater demand placed on the plants for growth you will probably need CO2 injection to get the best results. But you also move into an area that requires more work in keeping those fast growing little buggers in check, regular fertilization etc. If your tank is very large and you use purchased plant ferts, it will cost you an arm and a leg.....might have to look into something like PMDD (poor mans dosing drops) plenty of info out there on that subject. If you set it up like Jays, he puts in the max dose of nitrates and other ferts but then has to do very large weekly water changes to keep things from building up........really a lot to think about and decide.....it is not just a monetary investment, but it is an investment of time as well.

Before investing in all the high tech equipment, you can build your own fermentation canister that uses yeast and sugar which would sit under you tank and an airline tube would come up and pass the CO2 through some kind of bubble ladder, (there is a spiral version that I think would be better). That would give you a chance to test it out and see if the investment will be worth it based on the effect it has on your tank. Not sure how large your tank is but if it is larger you can set a couple of them up at either end of the tank. You may even be satisfied with just that. I used one in my 26 gallon and got great results.

post back with tank size and other info.

ltl