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Best t5 tubes thoughts

Lee77

Lee77

Member
Joined
19 Sep 2017
Messages
30
Location
Doncaster
Looking at replacing my t5 tubes. iQuatics 4 x 39w tube light unit.
16" above substrate level
Tropica soil
Pressurised co2
Dosing macros micros
Growing different plants easy to demanding some do well some don't. Seem to be losing a lot of lower leaves on stems.

Wondering what your thoughts are on the best t5 tubes / combos out there for good plant growth.
 
Lee77 said:
Seem to be losing a lot of lower leaves on stems.
Click to expand...
That means you are using too much light and that your CO2 and flow or distribution techniques are inadequate.
Saying that you use pressurized CO2 means nothing as an estimated 95% of all problems incurred in pressurized CO2 tanks are actually due to poorly implemented CO2.
There is an entire set of procedures that have been developed to help optimize the efficacy of CO2.

"Demanding" plants are demanding because they demand better CO2 techniques, not because they demand more light.
This is a fact that many hobbyists completely gloss over to the detriment of the plants and animals in the tank.

There is no such thing as "best T5 bulb for plant growth". Any T5 bulb you use will be fine and none will work better than any other.
The problem with T5 and other bulbs is that hobbyists tend to use too much light and then when their plants melt into oblivion they are then quick to offer ridiculous excuses such as macro or micro poisoning.
Best should be considered as what is best for you to look at.

If you are using 4 bulbs and are killing you plants with kindness, then it would be a good idea to disable two of the bulbs until you can sort out the problems with CO2/flow/distribution. Losing lower leaves is one of the first signs of impending serious problems.

Cheers,
 
Currently injecting co2 through an inline atomiser.
Tank is 180 litres using a jbl 1501 external with the inlet that comes with the filter which is 2" under the waters surface.
Have you any suggestions on how I can improve the flow / distribution of co2 around the tank ?
I think the filter is more than sufficient for the size of tank.
I can see the co2 bubbles flowing around the tank and plants swaying in the flow.
Thankyou for your response.
 
I've taken your advice and reduced the lighting.
Sometimes I think it can be very misleading when you read of plants that require high light, so immediately you assume I need as much light as possible. This I now know is not the case.
Just been reading through some old posts on here about kh.
My kh is 4
I've got a ph probe so I'm going to take some readings and see what drop in ph I get.
What would you expect for a kh of 4?
Thankyou
 
Lee77 said:
What would you expect for a kh of 4?
Click to expand...

You can expect anything mate as the PH probe will measure any acids in the tank as well as co2 (which is also acidic) Test the water prior to injecting co2 and aim for 1ph unit drop by the time the lights come on and try and maintain that ph drop until the lights go off. For example if your ph is 7.2 before lights aim for 6.2.
 

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Looking good mate :thumbup: as Clive pointed out though and with all though plants maybe co2 is struggling to get to the bottom of the plants. Hard to tell off the pics where the outlet is, is it a spray bar? The drop checker is also at the top where there tends to be more co2 on its way out of the system. You would get a more accurate reading getting it lower down in the tank in a place where you think flow is poor. If you're good there chances are you should be elsewhere.
 
Could you attach a spray bar to that and attach it along the back wall? Seems like currently that outlet is pushing water along the top level. With your drop checker up at that level as well its probably giving you high co2 readings but down at the substrate level the co2 could actually be quite low. Put the DC about 100mm off the gravel furthest away from the out let and see what you get. The surface skimmer is pushing towards the front as well not really giving its full potential. Failing putting a spray bar on the outlet maybe try the surface skimmer on the side wall next to the out let and have both of them pushing water left to right at high and low level.

Turning the lights down as you have will certainly help. If you have low co2 down the bottom of the tank and high lighting that's possibly why the plants are ditching lower leaves in favour of ones up in the co2 rich layer at the top. Regarding lighting, other than brightness and how many lights the colour spectrum doesn't matter. People tend to go for ones around the 6500k area of the spectrum purely because they make greens look greener and more natural. Higher up the spectrum the lights above 6500k they tender to be very white looking an unnatural. You can make plants look a lot healthier by having the right spectrum but they will grow all the same regardless.
 
I tied my drop checker to a pebble with short length of string, so I could move the drop checker (and pebble) around the tank. I was really surprised I could find places in the bottom of the tank where the drop checker remained blue, despite being green when located on the top front of the tank. Adding a 3200l/hr Koralia sorted that.

Also you filtration/water turn over rate is not really enough for 180l tank size. The rough rule of thumb is filter needs to have a 10x tank volume flow rate. JBL1500 is 1400l/hr, less than 1800l/hr.

If your JBL1501 is the newer type, remove the foam (F3) from the two filter trays and replace with 1/3 full of ceramic balls/media. JBL's is call it Cermec, there are plenty of other types. This will improve the flow no end.

Next get a full width spray bar to really push the water around, see my video below.

Add a power head, I have a 3200l/hr Koralia.

 
Firstly I'd just like to thank you for the advice, I really appreciate it.

I did have a spray bar on for quite a while with the same results as I'm getting now, which is why I changed it.

I've fitted an elbow to the skimmer to try and push the water around more at lower levels and dropped the Dc to 100mm from substrate level the furthest area away from the outlet.

The co2 bubbles seem to be getting to all areas, will just have to wait now.
If what I've done works do you think my stems will regrow their lower leaves?
Or is it new plants ?
Thanks again.
 
Lee77 said:
If what I've done works do you think my stems will regrow their lower leaves?
Click to expand...

They could eventually mate but best bet would probably be cut the growing tips off and replant the heads. As Ian said, rule of thumb is 10x turnover but you could add in a pump to help with circulation. Best practice would be a spray bar along the back wall and keep on top of trimming plants to prevent the flow going over them.

Apologies for the quickly knocked up pic but something like this is what you are after taken from side view with spray bar on back wall.

flow.png
 
I do have another jbl 901 filter on another tank thinking about upgrading this to a 1901 as its a big tank which I keep cichlids.
I then could put the 901 on the 180L with a spray bar or even 2? which will improve the turnover/circulation.
 
Sound like a plan brother. Broadly speaking the more water movement the better. It's all good and well injecting co2 but you need to get it down to the right places.
 
New filter ordered.
Again I would like to Thankyou for all the advice.
I will post updates in the coming weeks.
Cheers Lee.
 
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