# Do plants burn under high light?



## Simon Davey (5 Mar 2021)

Hopefully a straightforward answer, which I think I may already know....
I have 3 Radions sitting in a luminaire along with 4x T5 HO tubes.
I imagine plants like Anubias, Bucephalandra,  and Java fern etc will just melt?

Or, are these "low light" plants just not as needy for light, but will grow under higher PAR levels?
I'd like to attach the above plants, fairly high into the water column.

Trying to plan my summer switch from reef, to planted tank.
Might just remove the central Radion, so there's somewhere for the above beauties to grow on Redfmoor arches in front of my weir. (why oh why did I get a central weir???)
Tanks in advance
Simon


----------



## aec34 (5 Mar 2021)

I’m not terribly experienced, but I definitely cooked an anubias when I had it positioned on a bit of wood only a few inches below a 6w light... looked ok at first then just started looking more and more poorly


----------



## Simon Davey (5 Mar 2021)

aec34 said:


> I’m not terribly experienced, but I definitely cooked an anubias when I had it positioned on a bit of wood only a few inches below a 6w light... looked ok at first then just started looking more and more poorly


Oh right, and just under 6w, strewth, I've got a minimum of 200w T5, and the Radions are serious, but, dimmable.
Cheers @aec34


----------



## oreo57 (5 Mar 2021)

Many aquatics are emergent plants so can easily survive full sunlight.
Problem is in air CO2 is not near as limiting as underwater
Of course the plants have modified their morphology as well.

At 500 total watts.. say 50000 lumens as a ballpark you will equal noon sunlight in par.









						How do Java Ferns do in SUPER high Light?
					

i have 150 watts, 8000k over my 24 gallon aquapod. what do you think will happen with my java fern? every other plant in the tank is growing like ive never seen before, but the java fern is still slow. i do see new sprouts though.




					www.plantedtank.net


----------



## Simon Davey (5 Mar 2021)

oreo57 said:


> Many aquatics are emergent plants so can easily survive full sunlight.
> Problem is in air CO2 is not near as limiting as underwater
> Of course the plants have modified their morphology as well.
> 
> ...


This is very encouraging, I'm getting all sorts of scape plans in my head. 
Thanks @oreo57


----------



## Zeus. (6 Mar 2021)

Yes, too much light when there isnt enough CO2, leads to pinholes, pinpoint pearling them melting in many plants, esp if the water flow is low
CO2 in air is 400ppm, in our tanks with livestock with CO2 injection we normally aim for 30ppm, without CO2 injection it is very low and with modern LED lighting it is very easy to melt your plants, which I imagine most scapers have done at one time or another, I melted holes in all my crypts with high light - trimmed them all back and reduced light and they grown back fine.

Unfortunately Anubias and Bucephalandra are slow growers, Bucephalandra is best in shady part of tank if high intensity light is used even with CO2. 
With pinholes in Anubias just peel the affected leave off the rhizome and wait for new to grow


----------



## Simon Davey (6 Mar 2021)

@Zeus. Thank you, it's great to get good information, and direction.


----------

