Adding CO2, should I upgrade lighting?

Kratos · Jan 8, 2011

I am just curious if I should upgrade my lighting before adding pressurized CO2 to my 29 gallon. I currently use a 30" Coralife Aqualight over it that gives out 65watts of 6700K compact florescent light. I don't use Excel now but dose npk and trace 3x a week.

OH yeah I am also upgrading my HOB Penguin bio-wheel to an Eheim 2215 classic. That is pretty much the tank specs. Currently I keep dwarf sag, crypt wendtiis, wisteria, ferns, anubias coffeefolia and onion plants and these get decent growth. Mostly slow growth except for the onion and wisteria which spreads rapidly.

What I plan to keep after adding CO2 is the following flora:

Micro Sword (I want some of that 12x12 MS carpet that is sold like grass sod)
Ludwigia Repens
Hygrophila Corymbosa Siamensis
Riccia Fluitans
Crinum Calamistratum
any Crypt plant I want
something floating (duckweed maybe)

Should 65w of CF light, 8-10 hours a day, pressurized CO2 and ferts be enough to keep all of those? I also have a planted substrate from aquariumplants.com. It's like Soil Master Select.

dbosman · Jan 8, 2011

You're on the edge of wanting more light, but for a 39 there are fewer solutions than for other size tanks.

So, add the CO2 and see what happens. It's going to increase plant growth so watch the plants in the next month or so and decide if you need more light, later. What you might want or need to do is replace the bulb if it's over a year old. I suggest GE 9325s for PCL fixtures. For T5 GE Starcoat 6500 is currently very popular.

jptjpt · Jan 8, 2011

Add pressurized CO2 to your current setup while keeping your current lighting and ferts schedule will make the plant growth lush, giving them more robust stems and leaves. Adding CO2 does not mean that you will need more light. You can add pressurized CO2 to a low light tank to get robust growth although the plants will still grow at slower rate because of the low light. Now if you want to accelerate growth as well, then by all means go to high lighting.

Kratos · Jan 9, 2011

Alright cool. I am over 2wpg by not by much. I'll keep my current fixture and maitenance and fert schedule and just let it ride with that and see what happens. I'm thinking if I want more light later on then 65 more watts of CFL and just time one of them to be on far less than the other. But for now, I'll see what 2wpg with CO2 will do for me and the list of plants I plan to keep. I really hope the micro sword carpet works too.

rockhoe14er · Jan 12, 2011

jptjpt said:
Add pressurized CO2 to your current setup while keeping your current lighting and ferts schedule will make the plant growth lush, giving them more robust stems and leaves. Adding CO2 does not mean that you will need more light. You can add pressurized CO2 to a low light tank to get robust growth although the plants will still grow at slower rate because of the low light. Now if you want to accelerate growth as well, then by all means go to high lighting.

great advice. I think you have way more than enough light. In my planted tank i have 0.9 watts/gallon of T5HO with pressurized co2 and thats more than enough to grow dwarf baby tears and almost any aquarium plant.

the lower your lighting the more room you have for error. When you increase lighting you really have to have conditions just right to avoid a huge amount of algae.

coach_z · Jan 12, 2011

jptjpt said:
Add pressurized CO2 to your current setup while keeping your current lighting and ferts schedule will make the plant growth lush, giving them more robust stems and leaves. Adding CO2 does not mean that you will need more light. You can add pressurized CO2 to a low light tank to get robust growth although the plants will still grow at slower rate because of the low light. Now if you want to accelerate growth as well, then by all means go to high lighting.

I agree!!! Great advice!

standardbyker63 · Jan 13, 2011

There's some great advice given above. I would follow it. The only thing that adding more light will do is cause your plants to grow faster, thereby requiring more CO2 and more ferts. Today's modern lighting technology has advanced quite a bit. T5 HO and CFL bulbs put out significantly more light than bulbs used previously. Like rock mentioned above, he grows plants very successfully with only 0.9 wpg of T5 HO. The whole WPG rule should really be thrown to the wayside because 1wpg of today's technology is worth so much more light than when that rule came about. Use the light you have now and cater your CO2 and ferts to it. Your plants will look great and it will cost you less. If you want to grow them faster, add more light, CO2, and ferts. But more light makes the situation more susceptible to algae outbreaks.

hage0245 · Jan 13, 2011

I was literally going to ask the same question right now, good thing I found this! I currently have 80 watts of t12 6700K on my 55 gallon and was wondering if going out and making a DIY CO2 system would be a bad thing to do....now I think I know!

The forum does it again...


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Adding CO2, should I upgrade lighting?

Kratos

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