# Plants with less and more light



## viktorlantos (26 Aug 2011)

We had this discussion several times that plants do not need high light as they do well with lower too with good nutrient dosing, CO2 etc. I am a believer that some plants really need more lights. Name it as 1 watt / liter or a similar stuff does not matter. Yeah you can keep most of them with half or 3/4 of the light too, but the result will be different.

A high light plant with less light will melt, will be leggy will be green and less colorful. For me this is trully not acceptable and for this reason i never recommend a plant like this to lower conditions.

We have 2 plant holder tanks where we can see how plants react to different conditions. 
The basic setup is pressurized CO2 with AM1000 external reactor. 2028 Eheim for filtration and Hydor Koralia 2800 as a support pump for the 240 liter tanks to keep good circulation even when the tank is fully loaded and crowded. Both thank goes with EI ferts daily and Easy Carbo.

Originally we kept the plants with 2x54 watt (ATI with powerful reflectors). But many plants had problems. I allways wanted to turn up the ligth too 4x54Watt (same we're using on our planted tanks), but in a plant holder this is way too much especially as plants rotate quickly and transform leaf mass cause lots of algae if the light is too much.
Slow grower shady ones are more open to algae or large stems where emers leaf drop off in the first 1-2 weeks.
FYI we use the light for 7 hrs a day.

But when all the light is up the tank is turning to a different dimension. Many plants get orange, red, purple etc colors. You usually not see this with 2 tubes. Plants which not goes well in a crowded holder tank like Rotala Walichii turn to really nice. Pogostemon Stellata, Echino Reni, Proserpinaca, Lotus, Aponogeton C. Red, and of course HC, Micranthemum Umbrosum, HM gets enough light even when the tank is crowded.

Maybe some plants would act differently sometimes if they would be in a soil not in their original pot, but the more lights makes wonders with many plants.

The issue is that with my photo gear the color madness is too hard to capture. But a couple samples here:

plants are toppped currently, but hopefully this gives an idea.




 













Echino Reni from green emers to red and to purple with more light on in.





Ludwigia Arcuata in our planted tank. With 4 tubes and without any shaders around the plant.





older shot 2 tubes. Sorry but the tank is fully packes and the plants are grown too much. But There are much less colors here. WB is different but that does not add too much. These shots are more green. And it's not visible here which plants are strugling because of the less light or the shader plants.













Proserpinaca gets less color with less light. Only high light boost this plant.





This is just a discussion starter. Of course many condition is different etc etc. But this is experimental how more light add an additional dimension to different plants.

Will do another shoot a week later on the holder tanks when plants will grow a bit. Maybe the difference will be much more visible then.


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## Tom (26 Aug 2011)

Fantastic pictures! The Ech. reni looks great


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## clonitza (26 Aug 2011)

Totally agree with you Viktor, for example rotalas and some ludwigias like arcuata and brevipes need more light to show off the beautifull colors and shapes. BTW your arcuata should be purple 

Mike


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## viktorlantos (26 Aug 2011)

clonitza said:
			
		

> Totally agree with you Viktor, for example rotalas and some ludwigias like arcuata and brevipes need more light to show off the beautifull colors and shapes. BTW your arcuata should be purple
> 
> Mike



Cheers. Yup again capture, i need to be more advanced with these red photos.
Arcuata may need even more than 1W/L to show off the purple colors.



			
				Tom said:
			
		

> Fantastic pictures! The Ech. reni looks great



Thanks Tom. Let's see how that will look a week later.


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## Iain Sutherland (26 Aug 2011)

i want to come shopping there!


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## nayr88 (26 Aug 2011)

Wow!!
That's wild, i can just about resist buyin the p@h plants when I see them, imagine walking into a place  like that after payday!


Stunning pictures viktor as interesting discussion.


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## faizal (27 Aug 2011)

nayr88 said:
			
		

> Wow!!
> That's wild, i can just about resist buyin the p@h plants when I see them, imagine walking into a place like that after payday!



   

Hi Victor,....when you say 1 Watts/ Litre,....do refer to the T5 lamps?


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## viktorlantos (27 Aug 2011)

Yup 1W/L T5 with reflectors. We're using HQI too on some of our tanks. We're shooting for this ammount there too for 7hrs a day, But the plant holders have T5.


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## clonitza (27 Aug 2011)

Don't think Viktor is still using T8s. 
About the purple coloring hmm I still don't think it needs only huge amounts of light, fertilizing regime I think it plays a big role. I'll try an experiment the next weeks in my tank using medium to high lighting, low NP fertilization and lots of CO2 trace & potassium to see if it makes any difference. People here use PPS regime more than EI and plants look really different than the ones I've seen @UKAPS. You have a large amount of tanks in your shop so I think you can try different approaches.

See this tank's specs for example:
http://www.bubblesaquarium.com/Aquascap ... 9_HKCC.htm


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## George Farmer (27 Aug 2011)

Great post, Viktor.  We discuss a lot of theory on UKAPS but to see evidence from practical results is welcome too.



			
				clonitza said:
			
		

> See this tank's specs for example:
> http://www.bubblesaquarium.com/Aquascap ... 9_HKCC.htm


Fascinating spec.

Nitrate and Phosphate removers, and dosing just trace.  Low CO2 (2 BPS in >400 litres).  And all with 8 x 54w T5 for 11 hours!

Almost seems impossible if you go by current thinking on nutrient and CO2 requirements for high lighting.

It shows that there's more than one way to succeed with plants.  You don't _need_ to bombard them with excess nutrients.


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## Ian Holdich (27 Aug 2011)

^^^this again for me reiterates Amanos dosing regimen. 

Great pics Viktor, and i shall be watching this one with interest. I do believe you can get away with just good flow growing certain plants though, maybe not the colourful plants. I thought it would be hard as nails to grow a HC carpet in a 60cm high tank, with just 2x28w T5 lighting. But it can be done with correct flow and distribution.


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## viktorlantos (27 Aug 2011)

Well for red colors as i know low nitrates also play a role. So that could be an explanation on weak ferts. But thats not true for all the plants. Again many other factors.

Actually the topic is not only about red colors, but that is easily recognizable. Die off, leggy plants also an issue. 

Thanks for your input guys, if you have similar photos just post it  i try to make better demonstrations too later on.


---
I am here: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=47.504200,19.151624


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## sanj (2 Sep 2011)

The guy is still using clay based Aquasoil that would bind NPK even if it only comes from tap water, I didnt think the likes of Amano dosed excessively either, but the use of all those removers seems a waiste of money going by the cost of just phosphate removers here in the UK. 

Still its a slightly different approach, seems more old school to me. before EI became popular P  and N removal was not an uncommon practice here in the UK.


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