ADA low light tank, no you do not "need" high light

P

plantbrain

AC Members
Apr 27, 2001
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Davis, CA
www.barrreport.com
I have long been saying that low light CO2 enriched tanks are very stable and easy to care for, they demand less nutrients and CO2, they are easier to keep with pruning etc. Less algae. Anyone ever killed a fish with too little light?
Probably not......

Here's a simple 1.5 watt/gal light over this 70 gal tank.

resized70galADAwith1.5wgal.jpg


Dwarf hairgrass etc.

Regards,
Tom Barr
 
I'm going to have to retry dwarf hairgrass in my low light setup and add CO2. What kind of hairgrass (E. parvula/E. acicularis) is in the pic, if it even matters?
 
Where can I buy that grass in the picture. What is the exact name.

I want to put it in my low light 46 gal bowfront.

Thanks
 
I think while possible, it would be tougher to get this type of tank without adding CO2.

Adding CO2 to low light tanks is ideal, it provides excellent slower growth and very stable conditions and very low algae.

It's not nearly as slow as non CO2 though.
It's just common dwarf hair grass.

Regards,
Tom Barr
 
That's beautiful. Are you using an ADA substrate?

And what is the plant in the background? I've been through plantgeek.net and tropica.com and can't pin it down.
 
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Is that your tank?
I agree that the maintenance alone is a good reason to stay low light. I will always say that co2 is necessary. The health and color of the plants
is visibly different with/without co2.

There is on the other hand a few good reasons to have an extremely high light situation to start off with.

My thoughts.

When setting up a new aquascape in an established tank I choose to use HIGH watt per gallon for the first 1-3 months. First plants all the slow growing or foreground plants, pump co2 and dose ferts to match 5-8wpg
and let the plants fill in. Then I switch to 2wpg lower co2 and ferts and plant fast growing stem plants.
Now you have a complete aquascape that won't require much maintenance.

The main reason for starting with a HIGH light situation is most foreground plants will grow up instead of out in a low light situation. This lets you fill things in the way you want them and then keep them that way.

johnlarson66
That grass is [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Eleocharis acicularis
its just been trimmed to size.
[/FONT]
 
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