i have a diy light hood that has been sugested has too much light. from all the books that i have read (about 3 diffrent books) stating that you can never have too much light. what i have read is that plants grow on a bar scale if it has a limited amount of nutrients then the plant will only grow to those limitations. same with light and same with co2 so on and so forth. is this true and can you have too much light??
can you have too much light?
- Thread starter iamvictor2k
- Start date
Yes, if you have too much light, not enough nutrients or CO2, then you will grow algae. I've cut back my lighting a bit since I think I'm lacking enough CO2 for the light I was using and BBA started showing up.
ok besides the algae aspect can you have to much light? will plants not grow well if they have to much light?
Im sure there is a point when you have to much light. But keeping up on the balance of nutrients is not worth it. And unnecessary.
same as what they said.... you should have just enough light to grow the plants you want. more then that its just a waste.
tanker
Josh Holloway--Be mine!!!
I do not think you can have too much light. I have almost 500 watts over my 100 and 120gal.
But really hard to say what is too much. 500 watts of Metal Halid, CFL, and T5 or T8 is very different.
But really hard to say what is too much. 500 watts of Metal Halid, CFL, and T5 or T8 is very different.
I vote with the "have as much light as YOU like" camp. My 10g came with 2 incandescent 15 watt tube bulbs. When they burned out I discovered that a small compact flourescent fit the socket and guard just fine. Those are "13 watts"....but the light output is *60w* each.
First time I screwed them in and hit the switch I had a flashback to the '60s. WOW! It was brilliant and beautiful and just plain stunning to behold. It still is.
Yeah I have to scrub the walls here and there just about every day. Big whoop: I made a little scraper out of some velcro-like stuff (obtained free as it was used as packing material in a box I got in the mail long ago--I just knew the stuff would have a use someday so hung on to it) twist-tied to the end of a stick I cut off a holly tree in the woods behind my house. It works great and the fish think it is their personal HDTV entertainment system. I cut back on feeding and the fish clean any algae off the plants, pretty much. Anything that gets past them I cut off and remove. Problem solved.
Let there be light, I say. All the light you like.
First time I screwed them in and hit the switch I had a flashback to the '60s. WOW! It was brilliant and beautiful and just plain stunning to behold. It still is.
Yeah I have to scrub the walls here and there just about every day. Big whoop: I made a little scraper out of some velcro-like stuff (obtained free as it was used as packing material in a box I got in the mail long ago--I just knew the stuff would have a use someday so hung on to it) twist-tied to the end of a stick I cut off a holly tree in the woods behind my house. It works great and the fish think it is their personal HDTV entertainment system. I cut back on feeding and the fish clean any algae off the plants, pretty much. Anything that gets past them I cut off and remove. Problem solved.
Let there be light, I say. All the light you like.
Well, I'll repeat the old mantra: It's all about balance.
The higher the light, the higher the amount of nutrients needed, and the higher the amount of co2 needed. If it's a plant-only tank, you can crank the co2 up as high as you'd like. People have suggested that eventually the co2 will drop the pH in the tank to a level that is unsuitable for plants....however I've dropped my pH to 4.5 and my plants have been fine.
Just make sure it's all in balance.
However, extremely high light is a walking a tight rope, one little mistake and it'll be algae city.
Personally, I really wish people would get this idea of needing such high light out of their heads. You don't need so much light over a tank to grow the plants you want, and it usually only ends in disaster...often running people out of the hobby. On say, a 75g tank, 162 to 216 watts of T5HO is all you'll ever need.
Like MG said, more is just a waste.
The higher the light, the higher the amount of nutrients needed, and the higher the amount of co2 needed. If it's a plant-only tank, you can crank the co2 up as high as you'd like. People have suggested that eventually the co2 will drop the pH in the tank to a level that is unsuitable for plants....however I've dropped my pH to 4.5 and my plants have been fine.
Just make sure it's all in balance.
However, extremely high light is a walking a tight rope, one little mistake and it'll be algae city.
Personally, I really wish people would get this idea of needing such high light out of their heads. You don't need so much light over a tank to grow the plants you want, and it usually only ends in disaster...often running people out of the hobby. On say, a 75g tank, 162 to 216 watts of T5HO is all you'll ever need.
Like MG said, more is just a waste.