I am trying the plants route..I feel that the standard light strip on the 46 is not enough for hardy plants.. What kind of lighting will enable me to grow hardy plants as well as plants demanding light? I'd like to get a light that can grow almost enough but also keeping in mind budget..
Hawkman2000
Members
Fluval has that new freshwater led. Current USA has the satellite freshwater led+. Like you said though,cost is the problem.
AquaStudent
CCA Members
The first thing you need to think about with planted tanks is what kind of plants are you going to keep? Are you going to keep it low light/low tech (I recommend this for starting out) or high light/high tech (pressurized c02, ferts dosing, etc). Figuring this out will determine what plants you'll be able to keep and the lighting/requirements that will best suit them.
I'm going to assume that you want to do low light plants. These include anubias species, most cryptocorynes, aquatic mosses (java, peacock, willow), many swords, vallisernia (vals), and java fern to name a few.
To grow these kinds of plants on a 46 bowfront (apprx 22" tall) you could build a fixture using T8 (or T5 which would be better) shop lights from a home improvement store. You can quite easily wire in a plug and build a canopy for the fixture. I did something similar on my 55g AC tank. I don't keep many plants in there but I've thrown some hornwort and it's been growing great. Duckweed has also grown (until it leaves the filter compartments and the fish eat them).
The challenge will be length. From what I could look up a 46 bow is apprx. 36" long. I'm not sure if shop lighting comes in 3' lengths. You can always go with the standard 4' light but you'll have the extra half a foot overhang on each side which, depending on how you plan on hanging the light, could pose a problem.0
I used something similar to this on my build. This may give you some ideas.
http://www.lowes.com/ProductDisplay...gId=10051&cmRelshp=req&rel=nofollow&cId=PDIO1
Here's a photo of my light/canopy on my 55g.
Prior to painting and a few other projects
]
EDIT: I almost completely forgot to mention what I think is the most important part of lighting! SPECTRUM! You could pump hundreds of watts over a small planted tank and it may not work because there's not enough of the useful wavelengths for plants. My favorite spectrum to use in my plants is a temperature (basically the color of the light) of 6500 Kelvin. Sometimes it's described as "Cool-White" or "Daylight" (slightly different temperature but pretty much the same thing). Don't bother buying one of those expensive florescent plant growing tubes at a pet store. An $8 one from Lowes/The Home Depot works just as well (and at a mere fraction of the cost).
I'm going to assume that you want to do low light plants. These include anubias species, most cryptocorynes, aquatic mosses (java, peacock, willow), many swords, vallisernia (vals), and java fern to name a few.
To grow these kinds of plants on a 46 bowfront (apprx 22" tall) you could build a fixture using T8 (or T5 which would be better) shop lights from a home improvement store. You can quite easily wire in a plug and build a canopy for the fixture. I did something similar on my 55g AC tank. I don't keep many plants in there but I've thrown some hornwort and it's been growing great. Duckweed has also grown (until it leaves the filter compartments and the fish eat them).
The challenge will be length. From what I could look up a 46 bow is apprx. 36" long. I'm not sure if shop lighting comes in 3' lengths. You can always go with the standard 4' light but you'll have the extra half a foot overhang on each side which, depending on how you plan on hanging the light, could pose a problem.0
I used something similar to this on my build. This may give you some ideas.
http://www.lowes.com/ProductDisplay...gId=10051&cmRelshp=req&rel=nofollow&cId=PDIO1
Here's a photo of my light/canopy on my 55g.
Prior to painting and a few other projects
]EDIT: I almost completely forgot to mention what I think is the most important part of lighting! SPECTRUM! You could pump hundreds of watts over a small planted tank and it may not work because there's not enough of the useful wavelengths for plants. My favorite spectrum to use in my plants is a temperature (basically the color of the light) of 6500 Kelvin. Sometimes it's described as "Cool-White" or "Daylight" (slightly different temperature but pretty much the same thing). Don't bother buying one of those expensive florescent plant growing tubes at a pet store. An $8 one from Lowes/The Home Depot works just as well (and at a mere fraction of the cost).
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AquaStudent
CCA Members
If you wanted to put a bit more $ into the project you can invest in some LEDs (whether commercial or DIY). On my second tank (the planted tank) I built a DIY LED fixture for it. The total project, including wood for the canopy, ran to just under $200 (although I had a $100 gift certificate from a contest). My 29g planted can grow low-medium plants with ease. I haven't tried any high light plants but if I got a reliable c02 system I'm confident they would do well.
Here's the video describing my LED build
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJXT0-fTTxU
On that note a good thing for planted tanks, even low light tanks, is C02 injection. Carbon tends to be the limiting element in the photosynthetic reaction most of the time. Injecting even a little bit of c02 into your system can help drastically. It's quite simple to set up a DIY c02 system using yeast and sugar. The yeast will convert sugar into alcohol through fermentation which, as a byproduct, produces carbon-dioxide gas. This can be injected into an aquarium and diffused into the water column. It's a nifty trick and helps so much!
Here's a video showing construction of a DIY c02 injection system
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gxb_G3JAhso
Here's the video describing my LED build
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJXT0-fTTxU
On that note a good thing for planted tanks, even low light tanks, is C02 injection. Carbon tends to be the limiting element in the photosynthetic reaction most of the time. Injecting even a little bit of c02 into your system can help drastically. It's quite simple to set up a DIY c02 system using yeast and sugar. The yeast will convert sugar into alcohol through fermentation which, as a byproduct, produces carbon-dioxide gas. This can be injected into an aquarium and diffused into the water column. It's a nifty trick and helps so much!
Here's a video showing construction of a DIY c02 injection system
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gxb_G3JAhso
Leffler817
CCA Members
If you want to go LED, I like my Aqueon LED. It's very inexpensive and I can customize the lighting configuration between daylight and plant lights. I keep hardy, low tech plants with it just fine. I was tempted to try the Fluval or the Marineland LED but chose the Aqueon for cost and it had more lumens than the other two. I have yet to hear good things about Current LEDs, there's thread on ECC about them going on now. Some people have had luck with the Beams Work LEDs.
If you go with fluorescents just be sure to get the plant bulbs with the 6500k lights. Either way decide on which types of plants you wish to keep.
Sent from my iPhone using MonsterAquariaNetwork app
If you go with fluorescents just be sure to get the plant bulbs with the 6500k lights. Either way decide on which types of plants you wish to keep.
Sent from my iPhone using MonsterAquariaNetwork app
thanks for all the comments and advices guys! i do wish to keep low light plants like anubias and vals and some hornworts.. but in the future i do intend to keep more hardy plants and even go with CO2 dosing.. i want a light that could accommodate my plant growing needs in the future so i do not have to keep on changing lights..therefore it would lower my purchasing cost.. and maybe even make my beginner plants grow like crazy.. at the moment im just using a fluorescent fixture that i keep on for more than 12 hours per day.. there are some coralifes in here that are being sold, are 39w per bulb enough? what kind of wattage per gallon am i looking at?
Hawkman2000
Members
I just got an aqueon led for free, and I got to say that I can't see this being enough light for a tank deeper than 14 in inches, let alone a planted. To each his own I guess.
AquaStudent
CCA Members
It'll be a large investment but dimmable LEDs, whether it's a commercial product or DIY, would be a good option to be able to vary which plants you're keeping.
If you plan it correctly DIY can be less expensive with more customization than a commercial product.
If you plan it correctly DIY can be less expensive with more customization than a commercial product.
scientist0724
Members
Kris Weinhold has done some investigating into the Current Satellite LED+ and has written an article on his blog http://www.guitarfish.org/ .
I have bought one of these and will hopefully be installing this on a 17 gallon rimless tank soon.
Arlene
Leffler817
CCA Members
Yeah, funny thing after I posted what I knew about Current LEDs Chriscoli posted on another thread that she uses them and likes them!?! So, I sit corrected or am proven that I'm full of it. Dealer's choice. but I stand by my impression of the Aqueon LEDs. They are rocking my 90 bowfront with only two of the three strands of LEDs. But I have low tech/light plants.
Sent from my iPhone using MonsterAquariaNetwork app
but I stand by my impression of the Aqueon LEDs. They are rocking my 90 bowfront with only two of the three strands of LEDs. But I have low tech/light plants. Sent from my iPhone using MonsterAquariaNetwork app
londonloco
Members
I have two Sat+'s on 20g longs, which are only 13" high. The nice thing about them is that they are dimmable and with LED's, dimmable is everything. I had mine on the lowest par setting (see guitarfish's blog or pm me if interested, I have it saved on a pdf file I can email to you) for 2 weeks, then slowly ramped it up to full spectrum, 2 weeks later I was getting algae, so I turned it down to the "H" setting, which is full spectrum with some cloud cover, I think I've found the correct setting for the 20g longs. I just ordered another one for a 75g tank, drsf&s had them on sale, free shipping and 25$ off. Figured I'd try them on a deeper tank. However, my tanks are all low light, NO co2, NO ferts, I doubt the par on tanks 21" high would be sufficient if I had a high tech planted tank.
