# Newb want to know whether light is sufficient



## Vivian Andrew (8 Apr 2014)

Hi All,

I'm Andrew from India and newbie in planted aquarium, before had only normal aquarium so i need to clarify some of my doubt, do appreciate your valuable tips and help to make my tank success.

Below is my tank spec

Tank size - 36 x 18 x 24 inches
Substrate and fertilizer - JBL florapol fertilizer, contra soil 2mm substrate and ADA powder sand on top layer
CO2 - Pressurized CO2 (4 bubbles per sec)
Canister filter - Ehiem classic 350
Light - Aquazonic HO T5 39w x 4

I setup this tank on 2-3-14, and planted tissue culture HC on foreground and want to know whether the lighting is sufficient for it coz after 4 days of tank setup some part started to melt but it also giving new shoot now, for first four days i didn't dose any fert but after seeing a post from UKAPS I started dosing EI method for macro and seachem flourish for micro also want to know the name of the stem plants i planted. Below is the pic and sorry for my English 

Tank on 1st day



 

Photo taken yesterday


 

Below are the plants need to know the name of it


 



 



 



 

And if i made any mistake or want do any other thing do notify

Regards

Vivian Andrew


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## allan angus (8 Apr 2014)

all looks good 2 me if u got some die back could it be that u used emersed grown plants and they are adjusting to submersed growth ?  you say your tank is 36 x18x24 is that inchs? it looks smaller in photo also how far above tank is all that light ?


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## Vivian Andrew (8 Apr 2014)

Yes inches, light is 3-4 inches far from the tank


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## allan angus (9 Apr 2014)

well that seems around 4 watts per gall  with my poor maths wich is in the ball park for high tec tanks i think u need to keep an eye on the photo period 
and adjust the height period if u get probs  more expert advice fom the techs on this site im sure will help u more goo luck with it !


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## Edvet (9 Apr 2014)

Planted tank net, by Hobby


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## ceg4048 (9 Apr 2014)

The OP has too much light and not enough CO2. His problems will only get worse. It is suggested to disable at least 50% of the lighting.

Cheers,


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## Vivian Andrew (9 Apr 2014)

ceg4048 said:


> The OP has too much light and not enough CO2. His problems will only get worse. It is suggested to disable at least 50% of the lighting.
> 
> Cheers,


Hi Ceg4048,

My tank height is 24 inch so left all the 4 bulbs on, so if i kept only 2 bulbs on it will be sufficient for HC? right now i'm switching on light and co2 for 6 hours is tht good or need to change the timing. so i need to increase the co2 from 4 bubbles per second?[DOUBLEPOST=1397041306][/DOUBLEPOST]Hi Edvet and Allan,

I don't have par meter, but using mobile lux app i checked it showing 850-900 is that ok?, hieght period u mean photosynthesis period?


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## allan angus (9 Apr 2014)

yes bad spelling lol , i thought u might have to much light think ceg said it all better than i can !


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## ceg4048 (9 Apr 2014)

Vivian Andrew said:


> My tank height is 24 inch so left all the 4 bulbs on, so if i kept only 2 bulbs on it will be sufficient for HC?


HC does not care how much light you have. It only cares how much CO2 you have. CO2, Flow and distribution are more important than light.
On the other hand, algae really do care about how much light you have. The more light, the better for them. Algae will appreciate it if you leave all 4 bulbs on.

Please review the chart shown in post #5 and you'll see that at 24 inches the substrate PAR levels are very high with 4 bulbs. 2 bulbs is a much safer energy level to start at tank at.

Cheers,


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## Vivian Andrew (9 Apr 2014)

ceg4048 said:


> HC does not care how much light you have. It only cares how much CO2 you have. CO2, Flow and distribution are more important than light.
> On the other hand, algae really do care about how much light you have. The more light, the better for them. Algae will appreciate it if you leave all 4 bulbs on.
> 
> Please review the chart shown in post #5 and you'll see that at 24 inches the substrate PAR levels are very high with 4 bulbs. 2 bulbs is a much safer energy level to start at tank at.
> ...




Thanks for the info Clive, checked your posts in forum really good information, you really give good advice, one more thing it's been 9days so how many hours i need to keep the lights on, now I'm keeping my co2 and light on for 6 hours a day, now onwards will reduce the light to 2 bulbs like u said, I'm really getting confused with this light part actually some guys told me the light which i have is not sufficient for my tank height and need to change for MH lighting for HC growth but gonna follow ur advice coz i see lot of good progress here and happy I'm part of it. And you guys reply very fast i like tht very much.

One more thing is CO2 4 bubbles per second is enough?


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## Lindy (9 Apr 2014)

bubbles per sec means nothing. A drop checker can help by indicating lime colour but you should maybe put the dc down at substrate level as in such a deep tank distribution of co2 may not cover whole tank or reach substrate level in enough quantity.[DOUBLEPOST=1397063140][/DOUBLEPOST]Also is your drop checker lime green at lights on? co2 is usually switched on well before lights on so that co2 is in good supply for lights on.[DOUBLEPOST=1397063201][/DOUBLEPOST]If you reduce your lighting then demand on co2 will be less too so you may not have to touch co2


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## Vivian Andrew (9 Apr 2014)

Yes i have a drop checker and it's green when lights are on, check below pic for the color and placement in tank


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## ceg4048 (10 Apr 2014)

Vivian Andrew said:


> I'm really getting confused with this light part actually some guys told me the light which i have is not sufficient for my tank height and need to change for MH lighting for HC growth


Well, those are the people who have the most problems. The intensity of your light is directly related to the speed of growth. Higher light intensities automatically require higher CO2 injection rates. So you can use megawatts of light if you want, but it just has to be matched by massive amounts of CO2. Unfortunately, it's much easier to flip a switch on a a luminary to add more light, but it is incredibly difficult to ensure massive CO2, especially when there are fish in the tank.

If you presently have no fish in the tank then you should not limit your CO2 injection rate to only 4 bps. You can use as high a rate as you can afford. Turn the gas on an hour or tw prior to the lights to ensure that when the lights go on, the water will be already saturated with CO2. You can drive the dropchecker into the yellow if there are no fish. That will help HC to recover from being flooded. You can also move that diffuser so that it's right under the  filter inlet tube so that the filter sucks up the gas and spits it out in the spraybar. That's a very useful trick.

Also, I normally like to have the spraybar mounted on the back wall, instead of on the side wall, as you have in the photo, because that is a shorter distance for the flow to move, and, the front glass will deflect the flow right onto the HC field. But, in order for that to have maximum effectiveness you'd need a longer spraybar to cover the length of that back wall, and you'd have to make sure that the filter throughput was high enough to account for the pressure drop along the lengthened spraybar.

In any case, for the moment, just to get the HC going, increase the bubble rate to whatever value you want and try to get as much of the bubbles into the filter inlet as possible.

6 hours of light is fine. The duration of the lighting is much less important than the intensity.

Cheers,


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## Vivian Andrew (10 Apr 2014)

ceg4048 said:


> Well, those are the people who have the most problems. The intensity of your light is directly related to the speed of growth. Higher light intensities automatically require higher CO2 injection rates. So you can use megawatts of light if you want, but it just has to be matched by massive amounts of CO2. Unfortunately, it's much easier to flip a switch on a a luminary to add more light, but it is incredibly difficult to ensure massive CO2, especially when there are fish in the tank.
> 
> If you presently have no fish in the tank then you should not limit your CO2 injection rate to only 4 bps. You can use as high a rate as you can afford. Turn the gas on an hour or tw prior to the lights to ensure that when the lights go on, the water will be already saturated with CO2. You can drive the dropchecker into the yellow if there are no fish. That will help HC to recover from being flooded. You can also move that diffuser so that it's right under the  filter inlet tube so that the filter sucks up the gas and spits it out in the spraybar. That's a very useful trick.
> 
> ...




Hi Clive,

Thanks for the information will do like you said and will move the spray bar on the back wall if not sufficient will add one power head with spray bar for other half, once again thanks for the valuable inputs, and will keep updating the tank progress 

Regards

Andrew


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## faizal (14 Apr 2014)

Andrew,..you've got to post up more pictures of your tank. It's looking beautiful from the picture with a drop checker in it. The rest of the pictures appear to have been deleted.


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## Vivian Andrew (14 Apr 2014)

some more pic, My HC cuba totally melted when i went to LFS they said tissue culture plants was not success by the company who provided to them so they are giving replacement to all customers with pot and now they are giving HC mat for me, again i need to plant  and wait




 



 



 

These above photos are taken inside tank using my water proof mobile



 

The below pic is my 1st attempt but didn't go well 



 

Now i'm sure i can make my tank success with guidance of u guys  

Regards,

Vivian Andrew


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## faizal (14 Apr 2014)

That's looking lovely.. Looking forward to seeing this bush up nicely.


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## ceg4048 (15 Apr 2014)

More large water changes.

Cheers,


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## Vivian Andrew (15 Apr 2014)

doing around 50% water change


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## ceg4048 (15 Apr 2014)

3X per week, at least, right?

Also those bubbles look fairly large to me. They almost look like air bubbles, not CO2. Could be just the photography, but are you sure the ceramic disk is clean and free of debris? The disks should be cleaned weekly using bleach dip and rinse.
Also they need to go into the filter. I'm also not sure that's the best place for the diffuser if the bubbles are allowed to just go straight up and out of the tank. I would remove the grill and allow the inlet tube to swallow the gas. You'll then be able to reduce the injection rate. AS I see it the gas just goes right out the top of the tank.

Cheers,


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## Vivian Andrew (15 Apr 2014)

Hi clive,

Yes did water changes alrenate on 1st week and now doing 2 days once from tmr planning to make 3times a week, i think u got confused by the below pic that is my 1st planted tank attempt which went failure i used liquid carbon on this tank, that is air bubble which i run on night 




 

Now the below is my current setup which u providing guidance and doing good 



 

the above photo taken 4 days back, now made changes to flow will post latest pic soon.

Regards,

Andrew


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## jart (17 Apr 2014)

I like your start. Keep posting pics. Great advice ceg, as always.


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