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The reflector is doesn't affect plant growth. It just helps to "light" up the tank better, nothing more.

I think you'll do fine, and don't worry aboutusing them all, in Elodea's vase you should plant it in groups of 3 stems so 5 isn't that much, you can plant the stems in the back of your tank and that will save you the trouble of a background.

Valls are my favourite plant, as common as they are i still think those long leaves are really ellegant, and they are good growers. Sags are great, but they are realy slow growers so be patiant, and don't be surprised if almost all the leaves fall, it's normal, they don't like to be moved, they will regrow.

I don't have any expirience with hornwort, since it's forbidden here, but everyone talks wonders about it, just if you are gonna use it as a floating plant, be sure it's not shading your bottom plants.

Crypts are awesome and very hardy.

[span class="edited"][Edited by Falstaf 2004-07-19 15:17][/span]

well - I've decided to place an order for the following

5 hornworts and 5 elodeas (not sure I'll use all of em - but they work out cheaper in 5s

5 of these

http://www.microrepairs.glowinternet.net/40774152/4119.htm

Can't find too much about these except that they are slow growers, think they'll be ok?

5 spongy leaved sags

http://www.microrepairs.glowinternet.net/41534198/4166.htm

other sites seem to vary lots in their recommendations of these - some say bright light, some say low...

5 VALLISNERIA TORTA

http://www.microrepairs.glowinternet.net/41534198/4177.htm

And some potted crypt wenditi and crypt becketti (again, different sites list different lighting needs)


Think these should be ok?

I guess that since reef bulbs are made to provide light as if it was sun light hitting the bottom of about 7 feet, the spectrum and light temp. is much higher to compensate, i'm really not sure about the spectrum, i haven't gone in to it, this is what was recomended to me by a guy that has wonderful planted tanks, and so far it has worked, Rubin swords are doing great, magenta cabomba is actually magenta and even red crypts which are like really bright light plants are red. I just went and do the same in all other tanks, paying more attention to temperature than wattage, so far so good. Oh and also adding blue light bulbs (compacts) as they also do in reef tanks.

I would like to find more about what falsaf is doing. Maybe the usual plant bulbs used only have part of the spectrum that high light plants optimize on and therfore required mor watts. These high K bulbs could peak at the parts of the spectrum that these high level plants optimize at. You think that's why they have been classified as high light plants to begin with?

BAD FALSTAF!!! there, i won't do it again

I would go for the first bulb, if it's good for reef, then it will drive plants crazy, at least that's ME.

Olants look good they all say they are low light, so you should not have any problems, but with those bulbs (either one of them) i would go for it and try with a medium or high light plant. buy only one of each and see how they do, that's the best way to find out, it all depens of where the plant has been grown.

[span class="edited"][Edited by Falstaf 2004-07-17 18:46][/span]

Sorry my mistake, i did the division all the way around, hey i never said i'm good with math!!

Now don't do it again!!

i personaly don't pay any attention to WPG instead i go with light temperature, the higher the better, i may have a 20W fluorecent stripe, for a 40G but it has 10,000K so i have 2 20W fluorecent stripes which is 40W and 1WPG but i have 20,000K which is much higher of what i could get if i messured it in Watts, since most bulbs only have 6500K get it?

Ok - mine is 7500.

http://www.arcadia-uk.info/product.php?pid=12&mid=10&lan=en&sub=&id=4

by that I'd have thought it was a better bulb than
http://www.arcadia-uk.info/product.php?pid=11&mid=10&lan=en&sub=&id=4

But they say otherwise


so - any opinions on the other plants i mentioned?


http://www.microrepairs.glowinternet.net/40774152/4103.htm

http://www.microrepairs.glowinternet.net/40774152/4109.htm

http://www.microrepairs.glowinternet.net/40774152/4119.htm

http://www.microrepairs.glowinternet.net/40774152/4151.htm





[span class="edited"][Edited by danroach 2004-07-17 15:33][/span]

I thought you did it the other way around

Hmm...interesting. I have 2 9350k bulbs for my 30gallon tank and I'm planning on growing low lights plant. Perhaps I can get soem medium to high lights plants if you are having sucess with your setup. ]

Nice tank BTW

[span class="edited"][Edited by sly 2004-07-16 18:14][/span]

Sorry my mistake, i did the division all the way around, hey i never said i'm good with math!! i personaly don't pay any attention to WPG instead i go with light temperature, the higher the better, i may have a 20W fluorecent stripe, for a 40G but it has 10,000K so i have 2 20W fluorecent stripes which is 40W and 1WPG but i have 20,000K which is much higher of what i could get if i messured it in Watts, since most bulbs only have 6500K get it?

This is a photo of part of my tank with that set up, as you can see i'm only growing high light plants and only on 40W
Falstaf attached this image:
[img]http://www.fishprofiles.net/attachments/397715.jpg"]

Hi,

I don't seem to be having much luck with plants

I have a 25 galon tank, 18w lamp (+ reflector - are these really as good as doubling the wattage as claimed by manufacturers?), fine gravel substrate and a ph of 8.2

I have been reading that dense planting may make things easier - so I was planning on densely planting the background and middle of the tank, and leaving the front free - (have a couple of pieces of decoration, and a nice feeding area with a few small rocks which I'd like to keep intact)

so - I would like some tall plants for the back, preferably consisting of a mixture of "grassy types" and "leafy types". I have seen a few recommendations for midground plants.

One other Idea I've seen mentioned is to remove carbon from my filter - any opinions on this?

should I use a liquid fertilizer? (I have a bottle of tropiflora)


Or should I go for plastics?

rightho.

I'm wondering if the 1.38 given was actually galons per watt rather than watts per galon!!

so - will a reflector have any effect on polant growth?

Daniel.

Jake's right...its purely bulb watts divided by tank gallons. Nothing else is taken in consideration when measureing WPG.

When figuring watts per gallon, you do not take "anything" into account. The non-incandescent light bulb is 20 watts, lets say, but has a reflector and on the box it says " puts out the equivalent of 140 watts, but only uses 20 watts!" ...and you have a 20 gallon tank. You have 1 watt per gallon. Until planted tank hobbyists as a whole all get intensity meters and have set forth a standardized method of testing or something, this is what we have to go by.

"How do you figure 1.3 WPG??? It's 0.78 WPG "

I assumed he was taking into account my reflector (but if they double the outputr - surely that would make it 1.5)


"Elodea is a Medium light plant, but it will grow in that amount of light...just really slowly..."

ok. Thanks

How do you figure 1.3 WPG??? It's 0.78 WPG

Elodea is a Medium light plant, but it will grow in that amount of light...just really slowly...

Dwarf lily bulbs are great..you can get a package of them at walmart for a few dollars...walmart's aponos are good too. They're in bulb form and have to sprout

If you want some vines growing out of the top of your tank you can get some Pothos vines and hang them down into the bottom of your tank and up the wall They don't need much extra lighting in the room as long as there's a window in the room...they absorb a lot of nitrates too

I recommend the jungle vals as well, and crypts make a nice mid-ground plant!

---

Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Hi - thanks for the reply!

As for tall plants that can grow in that kind of lighting and tank conditions I recommend:
Elodea
Hornwort
Jungle Valls
Water wisteria
Aponogeton undulatus


I think elodea and hornwort are musts - but some sights list elodea as a medium light plant?

"One other Idea I've seen mentioned is to remove carbon from my filter - any opinions on this?"
Not necessarily, I use carbon in all my planted tanks and they do great, what you have to avoid is a lot of surface turbulence, at least I've never stopped using activated carbon.

oo err - I overfilter in my tank, and that creates a lot of current - pointing the filter outlet to the front or back makes the poor lil cories struggle!

I've been looking at a few online plant places in the uk - and one called greenline seems a pretty reliable place

I looked through their low lighting plants and the following look interesting, ifg anyone has any opinions on them..

http://www.microrepairs.glowinternet.net/40774152/4103.htm

http://www.microrepairs.glowinternet.net/40774152/4109.htm

http://www.microrepairs.glowinternet.net/40774152/4119.htm

[link=http://www.microrepairs.glowinternet.net/40774152/4151.htm
]http://www.microrepairs.glowinternet.net/40774152/4151.htm
[/link]

(I researched about 10 others, but they were clearly unsuitable..)



[span class="edited"][Edited by danroach 2004-07-15 16:47][/span]

I have a 25 gallon tank, 18w lamp (+ reflector - are these really as good as doubling the wattage as claimed by manufacturers?), fine gravel substrate and a ph of 8.2

You have about 1.3 WPG which is considered a low light set up.

I have been reading that dense planting may make things easier - so I was planning on densely planting the background and middle of the tank, and leaving the front free - (have a couple of pieces of decoration, and a nice feeding area with a few small rocks which I'd like to keep intact)
so - I would like some tall plants for the back, preferably consisting of a mixture of "grassy types" and "leafy types". I have seen a few recommendations for midground plants.

Well dense planting can help in the absorption of nitrates and ammonia, but it has it's own problems, like punning, fertilizing, lighting etc. if you are up for this kind of work then you are ok to go.

As for tall plants that can grow in that kind of lighting and tank conditions I recommend:
Elodea
Hornwort
Jungle Valls
Water wisteria
Aponogeton undulatus

For medium plants:
Anubias coffeefolia
Anubias gracilis
Anubias barteri
Cryptocoryne affinis
Cryptocoryne Becketti
Cryptocoryne walkeri var. lutea
Cryptocoryne wendtii
Echinodorus cordifolius

you can find profiles for all of them here

One other Idea I've seen mentioned is to remove carbon from my filter - any opinions on this?

Not necessarily, I use carbon in all my planted tanks and they do great, what you have to avoid is a lot of surface turbulence, at least I've never stopped using activated carbon.

should I use a liquid fertilizer? (I have a bottle of tropiflora)

Ok fertilizers are good, but you don't want to jump right at using them, first plant your tank and if you notice plants are showing nutrient deficiency then you add liquid fertilizers.

Or should I go for plastics?

NO!!!! welcome to the green side, you'll see after a while you will become a plant junkie

Good luck