matpat
01-20-2004, 9:57 AM
Hello everyone,
Im new to plant keeping (about 30 days) and I am having an issue with the wpg rule for lighting. Wouldn't lumens be a better way to measure output? I have been reading every article/post I can over the last month and I'm afraid that if I would have started reading the wpg rules before I ordered my plants, I would not have ventured into planted aquaria.
I have a 75 g planted tank. According to the basic 2-3wpg, I should have 150-225wpg of light on my tank. I am using a 48" triple tube strip light (3 t-8 32w lamps) and the single tube strip light (1 40w t-12 lamp) that came with my tank. This only amounts to 136 wpg on my tank. My plant growth has been explosive, at least to me. I had to begin pruning stem plants at week 2 and have had to continue each week thereafter.
I had thought about adding another triple tube strip light to my tank after reading about lighting and wpg, but I don't want to have to prune twice a week . While most of my plants are fast growers ( Swords, H. polysperma, Sag, Ambulia, R. macrandra/rotundifolia, etc. etc). isn't this what us newbies should be starting out with until we build confidence and gain experience?
I don't mean to incite a "riot" on the wpg rule but wanted to give my .02 worth on lighting. Like I said, in the beginning the cost of that much lighting, along with substrate costs and the costs of the plants themselves would have discouraged me from ever having a planted aquarium.
I tried to send a pic but the file is too big. Will try to send later.
Im new to plant keeping (about 30 days) and I am having an issue with the wpg rule for lighting. Wouldn't lumens be a better way to measure output? I have been reading every article/post I can over the last month and I'm afraid that if I would have started reading the wpg rules before I ordered my plants, I would not have ventured into planted aquaria.
I have a 75 g planted tank. According to the basic 2-3wpg, I should have 150-225wpg of light on my tank. I am using a 48" triple tube strip light (3 t-8 32w lamps) and the single tube strip light (1 40w t-12 lamp) that came with my tank. This only amounts to 136 wpg on my tank. My plant growth has been explosive, at least to me. I had to begin pruning stem plants at week 2 and have had to continue each week thereafter.
I had thought about adding another triple tube strip light to my tank after reading about lighting and wpg, but I don't want to have to prune twice a week . While most of my plants are fast growers ( Swords, H. polysperma, Sag, Ambulia, R. macrandra/rotundifolia, etc. etc). isn't this what us newbies should be starting out with until we build confidence and gain experience?
I don't mean to incite a "riot" on the wpg rule but wanted to give my .02 worth on lighting. Like I said, in the beginning the cost of that much lighting, along with substrate costs and the costs of the plants themselves would have discouraged me from ever having a planted aquarium.
I tried to send a pic but the file is too big. Will try to send later.