Juwel Rio - Lighting, carpeting plants

[Lee Sweeting]

Hi, i'm just in the process of setting up a planted tank. I'm going to be using the standard Juwel Rio 125 T5 lights. Thats two 28w T5 tubes with no reflectors, giving around 2w per gallon. I'm also using pressurised Co2, and have 10 x the volume of the tank in turn over. The plants i'am thinking of keeping are Marsilea hirsuta, lilaeopsis brasiliensis, rotala rotundiflia, bolbitis heudelotii, anubias barteri. nan 'petite' and various cryptocoryne. Would i need to have reflectors or would the light i have be sufficient? I'll be dosing with tropica ferts etc. I'm also a little bit worried about alge problems and the amount of light i will be providing. I'm a bit of a newbie to the hobby so any advice would be welcome.

 

[Matt Warner]

Hi, i have the same tank as you, and the lighting is more than adequate to grow pretty much any plant you want. As long as you are adding enough co2 which is evenly distributed across the whole tank then you shouldn't have any major algae problems. If you want to save some money then an EI dosing fert regime will be a lot cheaper in the long run and you can also ensure that your plants never run out of nutrients. What filters do you have running to create the 10x turnover?

 

[Lee Sweeting]

Thanks Matty! I'm running a tetra tec ex1200 with lilly pipes. Whats EI dosing? I've not heard that term before.

 

[Lee Sweeting]

Ah! Got it! EI, lots of fert dosing and large water changes. I was planning on using this method. I'll get there eventually 😉