Biocube 14g Planted Questions

[Lord of Jank]

I have a Biocube 14g that is pretty heavily planted. I am using Flourish Excel every other day half a cap. I was wondering if the stock lightning was proper? I have an Eco Complete subtrate but I do have it covered with about 1inch of rocks too.

24W 10K Daylight
24W Actinic 03 Blue

I just cannot get my java ferns to grow... at all. Most of the other plants are doing fine. Any thoughts? Any more details? I really am on the fence of CO2...

 

[rich311k]

That would be low light in my experience. Change out the atnic bulb and you will need the CO2.

Java ferns can be slow growers in low light. Are they looking bad or just not growing at all?

 

[Lord of Jank]

They just aren't growing. So you think (2) 24W 10K Daylight? I was kinda thinking that too since these biocube are geared for saltwater and the Actinic probably wasn't doing anything.

 

[rich311k]

Yes the atnic is doing nothing for your plants. Keep up the excel dosing or add CO2 before switching the bulb.

 

[phanmc]

The actinic is doing something. While using full daylights will be a little better I've used a 50/50 lighting in a similar setup (12g aquapod) and only saw a minor decrease in growth. Cutting out one of the lights saw a significant impact on growth.

I would add CO2 and fertilizers.

 

[Lord of Jank]

The actinic is doing something. While using full daylights will be a little better I've used a 50/50 lighting in a similar setup (12g aquapod) and only saw a minor decrease in growth. Cutting out one of the lights saw a significant impact on growth.

I would add CO2 and fertilizers.

Are you saying that I have to much light? I have seen it suggested to use 6700 lights vs 10k lights in nano tanks.

 

[phanmc]

Yes, even with the actinic, I would say you're borderline on needing CO2 and ferts and will see improvements with them.

The only reason you should consider the color temperature is for your viewing benefit, whether the lighting looks good for your tank. It has very little impact to plant growth.

Actinics are a special case since it emits light only in the blue spectrum and plants need a wider spectrum. However, plants do utilize the blue spectrum so actinics are not totally useless. In fact, the drop off in efficiency is much smaller than I expected.

 

[Lord of Jank]

Reducing the time the lights are on should help too correct? maybe I will switch to 3 hours on in the morning and 4 hours on in the evening or something like that.

 

[phanmc]

Reducing the overall photo period to around 8-9 hrs total will help somewhat, will make it easier to control algae. Still, during the time the light is on the plants will need nutrients so if you want to see improvements add CO2 and ferts.

I haven't seen any conclusive evidence that splitting the photo period into two shorter periods does anything.

 

[rich311k]

I have 4 watts a gallon over my ten gallons and they react like medium light tanks at best. I do not think you are anywhere near high light with your setup.