Have I dropped a B

[Mark Grigg]

Hi all,

I'm transitioning to a 60x22x28" aquarium, the tank used to have 4 x T5 lights, however as one ballast was playing up I decided to switch the front to LED, I purchased an 148cm Interpet Tri Spec light which was recommended by my local aquatic specialist.
I do intend to add CO2 and a blend of substrate, which I'll also ask for recommendations on.

However is this light known to anyone and can anyone provide me with some guidance here please.

I've spoken to another company who has said it's no good, just based on the brand (yes I know there will be better lights available) I asked then about PAR to which they said it was irrelevant, as watts per litre were more important. This really confused me as I'd expect this to be compared mainly by the depth of the water the light was penetrating, so if the tank was half the depth but twice as wide, I would have expected it to have some affect.

Any help is welcome.

Mark.

 

[ceg4048]

Hi all,

I'm transitioning to a 60x22x28" aquarium, the tank used to have 4 x T5 lights, however as one ballast was playing up I decided to switch the front to LED, I purchased an 148cm Interpet Tri Spec light which was recommended by my local aquatic specialist.
I do intend to add CO2 and a blend of substrate, which I'll also ask for recommendations on.

However is this light known to anyone and can anyone provide me with some guidance here please.

I've spoken to another company who has said it's no good, just based on the brand (yes I know there will be better lights available) I asked then about PAR to which they said it was irrelevant, as watts per litre were more important. This really confused me as I'd expect this to be compared mainly by the depth of the water the light was penetrating, so if the tank was half the depth but twice as wide, I would have expected it to have some affect.

Any help is welcome.

Mark.

Hello,
You are strongly advised to ignore the advice from "another company". It appears from their response that they are either clueless or unethical.
I don't blame you for being confused. This type of advice is specifically why there are so many problems in the hobby and why there are so many failures.

The best advice I can offer is to avoid chasing brightness. LEDs can often produce more PAR that one bargains for and the result is usually poor plant health. If you do decide to buy an LED fixture, then it is very important that you find a unit that has a brightness controller so that you are able to lower the PAR output when necessary

Cheers,.

 

[ian_m]

Hmmm. I would steer clear of any light unit that doesn't give Lumen output at least. Judging by the size and number of LED's I doubt it is comparable to T5 tube brightness.

To get anywhere near T5 tube brightness (and more) look at the number of LED's (and associated cost) required in these Aquatlantis lights. These are about 1 1/2 times as bright as T5 tubes.
https://www.allpondsolutions.co.uk/aquarium/lighting/aquatlantis-led/universal-lighting-freshwater/

However on a plus point, starting with low light is always a plus point to prevent zapping the plants with too much light, killing them and producing algae. You must have a controller with the LED as ceg says you must be able to lower the light to keep things under control.

 

[Mark Grigg]

Thanks Ceg / Ian, the LED light comes with an app so I have full control and it also has sunrise and sunset built in which I think is a nice touch but understand it doesn't make a difference to the plants. I was going to keep the 2 T5's in place in case I need a bit more, or I'll add a second LED. The LED is HO and appears

The other company I called was TGM, I'm not new to aquatics as I used to run a stores years ago, however I'm also not blind to the point that things progress pretty fast, so I like to do some research. I was a bit taken aback of the suggestions made, however they do have some good aquariums.

I'll stick with this for now, so time to understand substrate and CO2

Thanks for the feedback.

 

[ian_m]

substrate and CO2

Substrate doesn't really matter. People grow wonderful plants in sand/gravel. Though it has been said the ADA substrates are the "mutts nuts" to plant in, as in hold plants in place easily and very well. They are also nutrient filled from day 1, thus allow great lee way for cock ups when starting a tank, but also leech ammonia when first placed in the tank, so a full tank cycle is required (8 weeks ?) before fish can enter the water. Plants will be ok from day 1.

CO2 is hard to get right and requires lots of fiddling & tweaking and experience to get right. 99% of peoples plant health issues are poor CO2 injection methods and/or poor CO2 distribution methods.

Basically 2Kg fire extinguisher, dual stage regulator, in line diffuser & suitable rated filter and you are 95% the way there to getting CO2 to work well.

 

[Mark Grigg]

I was thinking of a clay based course like manado topped with tropica soil or some shrimp soil, running from 3”-6”?

Co2 set up (suggestions welcome) the JBL range seems good value.

I’m running a sump filter through bio balls, then through 3 layers of foam, in to 3 litres of k1 micro, then 10kg of aqua grog, returns via a 11w pond uv.

I’ve previously had Malawi’s in the aquarium and never had any nitrate, so hoping this should suffice, however I’m keen to understand potential fish stock levels.