Dimming without dimmer

[Majsa]

I just started planted a new tank today 🙂 It's a 54L CO2-enriched tank with ferns, bolbitis, buces, monte carlo, salvinia etc., on Tropica Powder.

The light I have is 15.8W Diversa Intenso LED (6500K) which cannot be dimmed. I think it might be too powerful in the first weeks when the plant mass is not that high yet and the floaters not big enough. I now set the timer to 5 hours, and there is a lot of ambient light coming in (although no direct sunlight). Do you think it's wise to try to shade the light somehow in the first weeks, and what would you recommend (preferably something you can find in the house)?

 

[tam]

Do you have cover glass under it - just pop a piece of paper or similar underneath on that - I've the back of a sheet of stamps on the top of one of my tanks at the moment, where I thinned out the floaters and trimmed a bit dramatically and wanted to cut the light. Try different materials until you get something that looks ok. I like 'dimming' either with floaters (or random sheets of paper) as you actually need very little light to see the fish and can have the lights on longer that way.

 

[Majsa]

Thanks Tam, I forgot to mention it's an open top tank, I don't have any cover for it. Maybe I can find something (semi)transparant to put on top of the tank. I do have limnobium in another tank I could "borrow", although not that much...

 

[oscarlloydjohn]

I raise my light fixture to make it dimmer. I have also used tracing paper to dim it but raising the fixture looks cleanest.

 

[Kezzab]

+1 for baking parchment.

 

[tam]

A couple of sticks across it would give you something to balance a sheet of paper or similar on if its not got a cover 🙂 Or you could use clothes pegs to hold something long enough to span the tank by itself.

 

[Barbara Turner]

have you thought about duckweed, also a good indication of you have any other problems.

 

[Majsa]

Good ideas! So for now I have an old glass cutting board (not good for your knives anyway) on top of the tank and two sheets of baking paper on it. It's not too pretty but it'll do for now I guess.

 

[Louielubert]

Cheers All, some great ideas to reduce light strength without using a dimmer