Getting the best use out of lighting I have

[peaches]

I have just upgraded my community tank to a 200 litre All ponds solutions tank which has 3 x 39 w lights, one described as "red" for plant growth and two white. The switching gives you a chance to have one two or three on. This is more light than Im used to, I was previously on T8s. I dont use CO2 but will be dosing with easycarbo and fertilizer. The plants are various crypts, java ferns, anubias, sword plants, vallis planted in playsand.

What is the best lighting regime?

 

[Alastair]

Which ever works best for the plants, stagger them, say 6 hours to 8 hours total. Run two tubes for the time being, and if needed use the other tube for a 2 hour burst mid period

 

[ceg4048]

This is more light than Im used to

Unfortunately this also means that the tank will be susceptible to more algae than you're used to, so you really need to pay attention to not overdoing it. People upgrade their lighting all the time without considering that they also need to upgrade their flow, distribution and CO2. A 200L tank is a large volume to be dosing Excel only which makes it even more criticall to control the input energy levels and to hs good flow.

I'd suggest to use no more than two bulbs to start with (and only one bulb for the first few hours of the photoperiod) until you can determine how much Excel you need. It's assumed you have a good dosing plan as well as adequate flow.

Cheers,

 

[peaches]

Would you advise me to lay off the easycarbo and ferts until the tank has been running a little longer?

What I have done is take my 100 litre community tank which was fairly low light and move the fish and plants into the new tank. I was going to use easycarbo and ferts just like I did in the old tank, but will leave off if you think its best not to. I have extra filtration and water flow in addition to the filter I had previously, which I am using also.

Im not sure what to do now. Should I use my lighting fairly conservatively, say just 6 hours at first, and stick with the same level of fertilizer or add more? Is Easycarbo best left?

 

[niru]

hi

what ceg is asking is to replace easy carbo with a dedicated CO2 system (diy or cylinder) as with this lighting, plants are bound to suffer from Carbon deprivation. Easycarbo is good/economical for smaller tanks with much less lighting. Else algae pester you.. So you could continue with EC but thats gonna get expensive (as you will need more of this), and some plants might prefer CO2 gas than this version of Carbon..