Can You Have Too Much Light?

[Jason01]

Allright, I am still working on my new shrimp tank, which I want to be heavily planted. At first, I was just going to overdrive NO 24" bulbs w/ 2 40 Watt Ballast. I hooked it up today for a test run, and it seemed allmost dimmer than a normal 24" :sad
I have been thinking about scrapping the whole thing, and going w/ PC lights. I was looking at AH supply kits, and was thinking of getting the 2x55 watt light. However, this is going to be put on a 20 gal. long. The 2x55 would give me 5.5 WPG! Hence the Question, Can you have too much light? Would the 2x36 watt kit be better? Or the 1x55? HELP!

 

[Wrench]

absolutely. almost worse than not enough. You'll probably have an algae problem . I'd go with a 1.55 or 65 PC.

 

[tuchon35]

I have 192watts over a 30, my Co2 is pretty high at 40ppm. It has only been setup for a few months, but luckily i haven't had any abnormal algae blooms. The only thing i have now is a little bit of staghorn algae, but even that looks like it getting faded out. I am no expert, but i think as long as you keep lighting, co2 and fertilizers in balance it will be fine. Also, pay extra attention to algae and try to fix it before it gets out of control.

Also, One thing i learned. With high amounts of; light, co2, and ferts. Go with a lot of plants that feed from the water column ( wisteria, r. indica, r. walachii, and not a lot of plants like swords, crypts.

 

[Aquabum]

I had a 20 gallon long tank with a 20w no fl. and 1 55w cf. I loved this tank.

Unfortunately, I noticed that my plants were getting a lot of spot algae on its leaves (very UGLY). I also noticed it on the back glass (a lot). It was nearly everywhere. I had diy co2 running on this tank and the plants were using everything in the water. They did great except for the spot algae that really drove me nuts. The leaves on my l. repens were burned. Recently I had to prune them till they were 2 to 3 inches high (they were about 10 inches).

If I were you, I wouldn't get 2 55w cf, that's way too much light. Just my opinion.

Lissette

 

[Jason01]

Duh!
Stupid me! Forgot about the algea. I think that I may have fixed my Overdriven NO lights, so I think that I'll stick with them, which will give me ~3.8 WPG. Plus, the cost of my OD lights is only about $9 so far. I'll keep trying with them.