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Holding /Grow On Tank Lighting

george29

Member
Joined
7 Sep 2018
Messages
48
Location
uk
Hi,

Am just setting up a little 30 cm cube to act as a holding / growing on tank for new plants so they can be treated for any snails and nasties before placing in the main tank.

Would also be handy for trying to grow on cuttings etc from the main tank.

Would one of these simple mains operated led bulbs be suitable for underwater plants ?

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The LED''s will work, but: high light means hich CO2 too.

Hi,

Its only going to be a temporary holding tank, will use fertiliser but no intention of adding c02, purely simple low tech.

Seems todays plants come with a large array of beasties/eggs which I had no trouble with my planted tank many years ago, suppose thats down to the popularity of the hobby these days and the volume of plants to market.

You say those 30/36w bulbs would be too strong, for this little 30cm cube, any suggestion of what Wattage of that type of mains bulb would be suitable, various ones around. eg 5w, 7w, 18w

thanks
 
Seems todays plants come with a large array of beasties/eggs which I had no trouble with my planted tank many years ago, suppose thats down to the popularity of the hobby these days and the volume of plants to market.
Potassium permangenate or diluted unscented bleach works well to kill any hitchhikers. I usually soak for about 30 minutes then rinse the plants thoroughly.
 
You say those 30/36w bulbs would be too strong, for this little 30cm cube, any suggestion of what Wattage of that type of mains bulb would be suitable, various ones around. eg 5w, 7w, 18w
Increasing distance will work (power decreases with the distance squared), i am afraid it will be hit and miss. Just experiment.
 
They will work, the plant doesn't mind, but with the color it will look very unpleasant.. They are called Full Spectrum but obviously they are far from it, full spectrum simply is white light.. :) It's a marketing yell to make you buy it.. These so called grow lights also do not contribute anything extra nor special to the plant.

Than rather take a natural white 6500K led unit equal in intensity.. I bet it aint specified.. So you likely wont know what you are about to get for the 36 watts.

Next to that with LED wattage says very little about performace in light output. Its a sum of consumption per LED on the PCB. Or a measured equivalent of intensity compared to a halogen bulb whit same wattage. Whatever that might be.

Beter search ebay for E27 dimmable LED spot light.. And take a seller that specifies lumen. Than search for the highest you can find and sellect dimmable.
Install a suitable dimmer and you can regulate the intencity..

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Ultra-Brig...01904099348?hash=item2f026c1014:rk:1:pf:0&var

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If it aint enough install 2 :) They are designed to be dimmed with any AC 220 trailing edge or Variac dimmer.
 
Hi George, you have probably not read exactly what you wanted to read but the problem as I see it, is if you try to keep plants in less than ideal conditions they will deteriorate quite quickly.
So on that basis a holding tank needs to be set up in the same way as a display tank ie ... good flow, light and ferts.
However I don’t know long you intend to hold the plants for? Would it be for a day or so or a week or so?
You mention growing on cuttings, that might take months in a low tech tank, so I think your holding tank needs to be well set up.
As regards the light, I would start off with around 10w of LED and see how that works.

However I still think that an emersed set up would be so much easier and you can grow plants really fast that way too.
They are really easy to set up and very interesting in their own right.
All you need is a heat mat under the tank, a piece of glass on top of the tank and a 30w LED flood light .
 
Hi all,
Seems todays plants come with a large array of beasties/eggs which I had no trouble with my planted tank many years ago
I think it is probably the other way around, the commercial realities of aquatic plant production means that companies grew their plants emersed or via tissue culture flasks. Have a look at:

(Originally linked in to <"Microsorum">)
They will work, the plant doesn't mind, but with the color it will look very unpleasant..
Commercial LED grow-bulbs use red (650nm) and blue (450nm) LEDs because you get a little bit more PAR for the same energy input, but they look horrible and from our point of view it is totally irrelevant. Marcel's (@zozo), @Hendre and @foxfish suggestions are good ones, you don't need a grow-light, any cool-white (4500K) or day-light (6500K) lamp will do, and dimmable is a useful option.

cheers Darrel
 
Hi Darrel, that is a very interesting video (although I have never watched it all the way through) it seems they shade and humidify certain plants more than others. Some are above trays of water, some in trays of water and some on sticks way above water.
I doubt if the humidity is very hight in the big green houses, I wonder if the plants are sprayed from above regularly?
 
Hi Darrel, that is a very interesting video (although I have never watched it all the way through) it seems they shade and humidify certain plants more than others. Some are above trays of water, some in trays of water and some on sticks way above water.
I doubt if the humidity is very hight in the big green houses, I wonder if the plants are sprayed from above regularly?

Most likely not so very much, if so it would require a RO system or exclusively rain water. Since regularly spraying with mineralized water will leave stains/deposites on the leaves.. I know Dennerle has a huge rain water reservior to lower the cost, i doubt they use it for spraying the plants a lot. So i'm not sure, but think it would be much to expensive for them to do that and it's not absolutely required. More likely a waste of recources.. I know they do make use of translucent tents for plants that require a higher humidity than the overall humidity in the greenhouse.

I do not know about Dennerle but i guess they have it to.. Like tropica also uses a Stroking machine, they stroke some plant sp. with it, simmulating wind movement. Makes the plant grow more ferm stems.. It's more cost effective than installing an X amount of fans all over the place. :)
 
Hi all,
I doubt if the humidity is very hight in the big green houses, I wonder if the plants are sprayed from above regularly?
I would expect that the humidity is computer controlled via vapor pressure deficit (VPD) measurement, using <"fogging units">, and these would only use a small volume of RO water.

The advantages of fog (fine droplets smaller than 20 microns) are that it doesn't leave any residue on the plant leaves and you need a small volume of water, the disadvantage is you need a pump that will produce very high pressures, and a high pressure distribution system.

cheers Darrel
 
Hi all,
but also the plants covered in tunnels are approaching 100% humidity
That would definitely be the route I went down for plants that require high humidity. Ferns, Aroids and mosses will all be plants that appreciate lower light intensity as well.

If you can cool the air down (by misting or fogging) the relative humidity will rise as an artifact of the cooling process. You get the reverse effect in houses in the winter, where cool, wet air comes in but is <"heated rapidly by the central heating">, relative humidity falls and the plants suffer.

cheers Darrel
 
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