260w 48" fixture on a 55g..Too much?

aquarob

aquarob

I give up!
Jan 1, 2006
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Hey guys, im new to the whole freshwater plant scene, but after much debate I have decided to take the plunge. I have got both Flourish, and Flourish Excel on the way. I am still on the fence about CO2 injection DIY. I picked up a 260w 48inch Compact Flourescent fixture on Ebay for $120.00USD shipped for my 260g tank that I a getting next year at tax time, and I was wondering if I could use it on my 55g to grow plants out to propagate to my new tank when I get it.

It breaks down to 4.72 wpg, though. Which seems like a lot. So, i need some advice on how to keep things from going crazy in my tank with that much light? Suggestions on plants I should aim for? Any additional chemicals then the ones mentioned above? Etc. Obviously I can use pretty much any plant unless its a plant that likes shade! This much light wont hurt my fish will it? Please give me some sound advice. Thanks in advance. Oh and just FYI tank critters and readings are as follows:

4 Celebes Rainbowfish (1 Male, 3 Female)
4 Peppered Corydoras
8 Glowlight Tetras
4 Oto's
1 Dwarf Gourami (Male)
-*Will be adding 4 Boesmani Rainbows (1 Male, 3 Female) in the next month or two to round out my stock.

Water Analysis:

Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate: 10ppm
Temp: 79.6F
Ph: 7.2
KH: 120

No idea on iron levels, phosphate, or magnesium as I do not have the equipment to test that. Thanks!
 
Yes, 4.72wpg is an AWFUL lot :D

IME do not put that light on that tank unless you are going to add pressurized CO2. If you don't, you will have a tank full of algae. Not kidding you.

If you do decide to do the CO2, don't put the light on until you have the CO2 up and running and a wack of plants. Sock the tank FULL of plants or you'll get algae like mad.

At 3.2wpg I put the CO2 on 10 days after I installed the lights and did not fill the tank with fast growers. I've been clearing up algae for the past two months because of that.

Roan
 
AquaRob, make sure that your new lamp does not have the actinic bulbs. Actinics are useless for plants and that wattage is pretty much wasted. If it does come with Actinic, you could seperately buy the 6500k bulbs on ebay.

With that much light I would highly recommend the presurized CO2 route, Excel will get prohibitively expensive and will not give you the pleasure of watching your plants pearl.

You also need to Fertilize your plants as they would require neutrients at that light levels. Go to Greg Watson's site, pick up a pound each of the following: Nitrate, Phosphate , Potassium and CSM+B for micros.

Read the sticky on fertilizers and ask questions, it may feel daunting at first but it gets better.

By the way, what kind of substrate are you using?
 
Well, im probably not going to do a professional CO2 system due to the cost. If anything I will do some DIY Co2 with the 2-litre and airline + ceramic diffuser. A lot of people use these with good results, so I dont want to spend the money on a injection system.

So, that not being an option, I should load up on plants eh? What kind of plants? Fast growing, high light plants I should think. Any suggestions on quantity and type? Best place to buy them? etc. Remember, I know squat about freshwater plants. Thanks in advance.

To answer your question on substrate, its standard black gravel from Estes. I know planted tanks are supposed to use Flourite, but again, this wasnt originally going to be a planted tank, so I am going to have to make due with what I have in there, unless I break the whole tank down and replace the gravel. But there is another $60 bucks I would have to spend on Flourite, not to mention what a PITA it would be to break the tank down and replace the substrate.
 
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A 55g is rather big to do DIY on. You'll need several bottles going at once. It's not a very efficient system with lots of ups and downs if you don't track and keep up with it religiously. IMO I wouldn't chance it with that lighting, but that's just my opinion.

Most fast growers aren't Very High Light, or SUPER High Light, which is what you are going to have :)

Plants to try are:

Anacharis, best in medium light
Amazon sword, grows fast with good light and nutrients
Hornwort is an old standby, but it's a low light plant
Watersprite, not sure what lighting it needs

Consider the plants you use as "throw aways" that you can move to the big tank when you get it. Just sock the 55 full of one or two different types that work.

Roan
 
I agree with everyone. That is a lot of light for a non CO2 tank (DIY is going to get really tedious very quickly), and you are going to be hard pressed to get the ppm up to 25-30.

It sounds like you have a 4 light fixture (4 sixty five watt lights). Why not turn off two of them and drop your wpg to 2.3 use Excel and DIY and give yourself a chance.
 
That's definitely a ton of light. Stem plants will grow at extreme levels, you will be trimming all the time. Funny thing is, if you use that much light you will need stem plants to outcompete the algae for sure.

With DIY, as long as you have the levels fine, there shouldn't be a problem. But as soon as you run out, or drop the levels without knowing it, you will get algae. It's very risky. Also a lot of work to keep changing bottles.

The wpg guidelines were created with T12 fluorescents mostly. PC's are brighter because they are more like a T5 bulb, assuming you have a decent reflector getting light into the tank. 4.7 wpg of PC could be like 5+ wpg of fluorescents, super high!
 
Ok so I've got too much light. So assuming I only use 2 of the bulbs on it for now, someone mentioned I should get "Stem Plants" can someone give me a list of those please? The fixture comes with 2x 65w daylight 6700k bulbs and 2x of the blue acinitic 65w. So im thinking I will just leave the blue ones off and use the 6700k ones. How much Flourish and Excel will I need to order for my tank? I order almost all my chemicals online, and I dont want to get hit with shipping if I dont order enough in one go. Thanks for helping me out guys, there is a plethora of info about all this on the net, but I trust you guys more then the 100s of opinions floating around.
 
Did you buy the Orbit light, AquaRob? Sounds like the same ones I have.

The actinic isn't good for plants anyhow, it's for reefs and not in the color/light range plants can use. So you really do only have 2.4 wpg.

For your 260g, plan on replacing both of them it with two more 6700k.

Based on that, it really doesn't matter what plants you put in there, just make sure you have a decent amount of fast growers.

Roan
 
Much better lighting choice. It's still quite a bit, enough for healthy plants.

What kind of water changes schedule do you have?

Here's a list of stem plants from plantgeek. good database

For the most part, stem plants are very fast growing. Especially good for increases in lighting or new tank setups.

Seachem recommends Flourish is dosed 5 mL for every 60 gallons once or twice a week. For Excel they suggest 1 capful (5 mL) for every 10 gallons after a major water change or first dose. Then 5 mL for every 50 gallons once every day or two.
 
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