How much wattage per gallon is this

[jpappy789]

Not if the bulbs are 1,000K or 50,000K rated.

I highly doubt any aquarium retailer carries T5 bulbs with those ratings.

 

[dundadundun]

plants don't see lumens or lux... we do. plants 'see'/use par. lumens and par are totally independent measures.

 

[GoldLenny]

I highly doubt any aquarium retailer carries T5 bulbs with those ratings.

How do you know they bought the lighting from an aquarium retailer? The OP never said that. They could have easily bought the fixture off of craigslist and some weed-head could have been using their tank as a grow-out for cuttings.

The OP said one of their bulbs was a 1,000K bulb and later corrected it to 10,000K when I asked if they made a mistake. I posted about the 1,000K bulb NOT being good for aquatic plants based on the OP's initial post... since that was the only available info at the time.

There are 1,000K bulbs available as they provide better light for flowering plants. I've read that on weed-head forums which I've come across over the years when looking for other lighting info. Weed-heads take their weed growing seriously.... unfortunately, that's about all they take seriously... or remember that they took seriously in the past week. LOL

 

[jpappy789]

I highly doubt any aquarium retailer carries T5 bulbs with those ratings.

 

[GoldLenny]

plants don't see lumens or lux... we do. plants 'see'/use par. lumens and par are totally independent measures.

Dum,

Exactly where will the average hobbyist find the PAR value on fluorescent bulbs that are readily available? It's not a commonly released figure on most light bulb packaging. If they go with the 6,000K to 7,000K range they will almost certainly get the correct PAR value needed for their plants in those bulbs.

A moderately easy to read article that goes into these things can be read here... http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/Aquarium_Lighting.html

A snip from that article...

What Kelvin rating for Plants & Corals;
Here are some observations made by me and others in the professional aquarium maintenance community, some of these are simple observations, while others were based on more controlled tests.

*The 6500 Kevin bulbs have produced the best freshwater plant growth, and can also work with SPS, LPS placed high in the tank water column (nearest the lights) based on the symbiotic zooxanthellae needs found in these corals. For more depth penetration (& to aid in the first spike in PAR, please see PAR section), blue actinic, 50,000 K/Actinic or adjustable/multiple LED can be added (such as AquaBeam Marine Blue) can balance out 6500K lamp if used in marine reef tanks.

Please note that saltwater absorbs slightly more light energy than freshwater due to the higher density of the water, so 6500 will not penetrate as deeply.

*The 10,000 Kelvin bulbs also achieve good growth rates, although slower than the 6500 K bulbs in shallow aquariums. 10000 K bulbs have produced excellent growth with soft corals and LPS, although slower paced SPS growth.

The 10,000K can be a good choice for achieving PAR for better depth penetration than a 6500K bulb (such as 20 inch or deeper aquarium)

And a quote from the PAR section mentioned above...

Further PAR Information; As the reader here can see, there are three main spikes in the PAR spectrum, with all three being important, however the most important spike occur at the red side and all three are generally incorporated more or less in a daylight bulb of approximately 6500K, not just a bulb of only infrared or as is mistakenly believed by many reef keepers, only in the UVA/actinic spectrum (although a daylight bulb of 10,000-14,000K can provide this too for deeper “more dense” tanks as these higher Kelvin bulbs generally penetrate deeper than a 6500K, albeit with slightly less from the 670 NM spike).

 

[rockhoe14er]

Out of Curiosity... With two T5HO bulbs with 6700k and 10,000 k is this enough to grow high light plants? or is this just considered medium light?

 

[jpappy789]

Out of Curiosity... With two T5HO bulbs with 6700k and 10,000 k is this enough to grow high light plants? or is this just considered medium light?

Somewhat depends on the depth of the tank, quality of the reflector, etc.

But you should be able to grow all but MAYBE the most finicky of plants, I would think. Especially with the right nutrient and CO2 dosing.

 

[rockhoe14er]

Yeah i have root tabs and am going to start DIY CO2 using a 3 liter water bottle today. I also am going to do

1/4 tsp KNO3 3x a week
1/16 tsp KH2PO4 3x a week
1/16 tsp K2SO4 3x a week

and 30% water changes weekly.

 

[dundadundun]

Dum,

Exactly where will the average hobbyist find the PAR value on fluorescent bulbs that are readily available? It's not a commonly released figure on most light bulb packaging. If they go with the 6,000K to 7,000K range they will almost certainly get the correct PAR value needed for their plants in those bulbs.

A moderately easy to read article that goes into these things can be read here... http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/Aquarium_Lighting.html

A snip from that article...



And a quote from the PAR section mentioned above...

thanks for the edumacation... and blatantly calling me dum... must be tough to pull that one off in a public setting... :clap::clap::clap:

as you can tell... easy is exactly what i'm looking for... thank you :bowing::bowing::bowing:

all that info is fine and dandy... but apparently not helping the op at this point. if you had payed any attention at all you'd have noticed that link was in the info i posted in the past. :duh::duh::duh:



rockhoe14er... i'd go with closer to 40% w/c's weekly... but you're plans are looking good. should work out well in a 29 gallon.

 

[rockhoe14er]

Thanks a lot for all the advice guys. I'm really excited about this tank. This will be my first planted.

Do you guys have any advice on water changes because it's a lot harder with plants because it disrupts them so much easier. If my tank were lower a siphon would be easy but i don't really have anything higher to put a bucket on.