New 2x65W Coralife in my 29g. CO2?

standardbyker63

standardbyker63

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Dec 10, 2008
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Bettendorf, IA
So I finally broke down and bought the 30" Coralife 2x65W fixture for my tank. I couldn't believe the difference it has made in my tank. I can see sooooo much more and it really brings out all the colors and details. The reason for purchasing it is because my original hood light that come with the tank just wasn't cutting it (obviously) for growing anything. I have two clumps of amazon swords that continuously grow, they just don't look healthy. Now that I have this new 130W fixture, I'm getting almost 4.5 wpg. Am I going to need to start using CO2? I do have the option to just run one 65W bulb at a time if I want. By the way, the bulbs are 6500k. Thanks.
 
I guess I should also note that I'm currently only using root tabs for the swords, but I do also have Flourish Comprehensive Supplement and a bottle of Flourish Iron Supplement. The lights are currently running 10 hours a day.
 
4.5 wpg yes on the CO2 with that high of light keep a very close eye on any Algae problems.
With dosing ferts and high light with no CO2 algae will be looking to take off.
When using the root tabs be very careful in not getting the tabs in the water column or green water could be the outcome.
 
CONDUCT said:
4.5 wpg yes on the CO2 with that high of light keep a very close eye on any Algae problems.
With dosing ferts and high light with no CO2 algae will be looking to take off.
When using the root tabs be very careful in not getting the tabs in the water column or green water could be the outcome.
Click to expand...
:iagree:
 
I haven't had any problems with the root tabs so far. I've been using them for several months and I bury them pretty deep in the sand substrate. I haven't used any of the liquid ferts in several months since I didn't have adequate light (purchased the new light yesterday). Would you recommend I only use one light (65W) instead of two, or should I just use them both and start using CO2? I guess that kind of depends on how much growth I want out of my plants. Thanks for your quick response.
 
I thought I would upload some pictures to show the progression of my swords and with the new light. The first couple of pictures show the swords after I had them for several months. I originally didn't use root tabs (newbie, didn't know about them) so the plants mostly died off. I picked off the dying plants and began using root tabs. As you can see, I only started with about 4-5 leaves on each plant. The last picture was taken last night after I installed the new light. The plants have produced many more leaves, but they are rather sickly and don't even look like amazon swords. Hopefully after a couple weeks I will have some healthy swords! Also, will I need to pick off these original growths once I get some new healthy leaves? It's my understanding that swords don't really repair damaged leaves, just grow new ones? Thanks.

DSC_0006.JPG DSC_0008.JPG DSC_0068.JPG new light (4).JPG
 
Nice and clean tank. I would however remove the air stone you currently have. Looks like you have external filter and this is enough for the 29g on arrogation to give the O2 needed. The air stone will drive the CO2 out of the tank and saturate it with O2.
I have not ran a air stone in any of my tanks for over 9 years. I have though ran a air stone when I used DIY CO2 because it runs all the time and can cause some issues in smaller tanks at night time. So I added air on timer when the light went out the air stone would come on a hour later and shut off 1 hour before lights came on.

The swords look very healthy. Not pin holes in the leaves that I can see. Which means very good nutrition. Give them a little time and that light will make them grow like weeds.
 
if you are planning on using co2 (which is a must if you run both of those lights), then you should remove the air stone. IT increases surface agitation, which will reduce the amount of co2 that can stay in the tank. SO, when running co2, you want as little surface agitation as possible.
 
That is a lot of light for only 2 plants.If you can only use 1 bulb,then you should until/if you invest in CO2.Are you planning on adding more plants?
Also your goldies will probably be adding enough ferts,(poop) for the plants you have.But they will also outgrow that tank.
 
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