90 Gal Lighting / flourite Question

M

mbeck

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Jan 13, 2004
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I'm putting together a new 90 gal plant tank - and I've got a question. I wanted to do some plants this time that require more light, or at least have the ability to do so.

I'm building a light hood with the AH Supply kit that gives 4x55. That gives 220 over a 90 gal, which is about 2.4 watts/gal. I've seen that the bright light requirements are about 3 / gal, but also I've seen a lot of people say that the reflectors with the AH supply kits give a lot more light. Is this sufficient, or should I perhaps build the hood to allow for some additional?

The new tank is 100% Flourite (man that took a lot of rinsing) - any problems with any plants running that way? I've seen a few things saying some plants may not be cool with that. I'll be moving the CO2 to the new tank, and am running a Fluval 404 in there as well, with the Fluval media, Eheim Substrate, and filter floss.

In my old tank - a 55 gal - I just had a dual tube flourescent (All glass) which didn't give the light I needed. Even with CO2 I still had problems with anything that wasn't low light.

I'm really looking forward to having a nicer plant tank - you all seem to be a great source of information.

I'm also looking forward to converting the 55 to Cichlids. :)
 
I think you should be ok with 220W on your 90. The wpg rule breaks down with larger tanks. You might have trouble growing high light forground plants (Glosso, etc). To be on the safe side I would build the canopy to accomadate 6 55W bulbs. That way you can upgrade in the future if you would like to.
 
Actually Glosso is one of the plants I've been interested in...

I think I'll take your suggestion and build the hood to accomodate more if I need it... in the meantime maybe I'll try the glosso with the 4x55s and see how it does.
 
Excellent advice from emoore.
That 2.4 watts/gal. will be more like 3/gal. with the CF lighting and their excellent reflectors, but you might find that Glosso requires more light down the road and since you have the option to accommodate more wattage later, it's a good idea to use it.

Len
 
Some of the best gloss I've ever seen was with 2.1w/gal of NO FL's lighting at 24" depth, the other tank was 18" and 1.5 w/gal lighting.

I like less lighting for Gloss, it looks better.

Flourite will be great for any plant.
Add mulm/peat top the bottom of the flourite to start up the tank well.

Anyone that wants to claim that Gloss is a high light plant should take a look at SFBAAPS and see Jeff's and Steve's old tanks.

I grew it fine at 2w/gal NO FL's.

Regards,
Tom Barr
 
Thanks for all your input.. would what I'm setting up be enough for plants that require bright light? It's actually pretty interesting looking at the plant competition tanks - some are only about 2.1 or so wpg, some are like 4.
 
Tom knows his stuff. I would follow his advice, go with your original plan, plant your tank, and see how different plants grow in your conditions. You can always make modifications if you feel it's necessary.

Len
 
Amano, Steve, myself, Jeff, we all have done it, this means other folks can too. But we are also pretty good at plants, the CO2/NO3 etc stuff will get you far and especially so with moderate lighting, since thigns are not so hard to keep up on.


Regards,
Tom Barr
 
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