Lighting question on 50g

dave76

dave76

Home Zookeeper in Training....
May 13, 2003
617
0
0
Midlothian, TX
dodaniel.tripod.com
Hello,

I have a 50 48"x13"x18" tank that I planted. I am currently running one DIY CO2 reactor with a custom lighting setup. The tank had 2 18" t8 15 watt bulbs which obviously isnt enough to grow much of anything. Everything in this tank has been done on a budget which is why I resorted to custom lighting. I took two white vinyl rain gutters and placed a modified light fixture in each that has two spiral CFL 23 w 65000k bulbs in each. I vented the vinyl and placed it directly against the glass lid. I bought a light timer and have it set to 12/12 currently. My substrate is pool filter sand.

Currently I have 1 anacharis bunch, 1 amazon sword, 1 bunch of microsword, Javamoss clumps 1 giant moss ball, 1 anubias nana attached to driftwood and several hygrophilla angustafloria plants. PH 7.2 gh 150 and kh120.

I staked the sword, the hygrophilla and the microsword with slow release fert stakes and dose twice a week with api leaf zone 0-0-3.

Everything except for the hygrophilla seems to be flourishing under the current setup. The hygrophilla has sprouted roots from the stems and seems to be placing roots in the subtrate but only has modest growth on the leaves. I have read that hygrophilla is a fast grower. Should I be more patient and wait for it to take off or is my lighting not sufficient? I was also thinking of pulling the microsword and trying baby tears as it is readily available at my LFS but wanted to be sure my lighting would support it. I have also read that HC is much better as a carpet type of plant as it grows much faster.

The lighting does run a bit hot, but luckily its not hot here in Texas yet and I have a in canopy DIY DC fan solution in the works. Tank currently stays around 82-84F.

I only seem to have modest algae growth, nothing that the otos and endlers cant seem to take care of.

Any suggestions or advice is appreciated.

Stocking is as follows
1x Apisto Cacatuoides
2x Blue Ram Cichilids
4x panda corydoras
12x neon tetras
6x endler's livebearers
2x otocinclus
2x medium sized mystery snails
1x ghost shrip
 
so you have 4 23w bulbs over the 50 gallon tank?

hygrophila angustifolia tends to be more of a medium light plant more then even the amazon swords. the thing with the cfl bulbs is they have a lot of restrike meaning a lot of light gets bounced back at the light its self then in the tank its self. 4 bulbs spreed over the span of the tank isnt a lot. if i am reading this right.
 
Right I understand that its not the most efficient but I couldnt afford to drop $150 on a light fixture and another $50 on new glass lids. at least not yet. So my parameters are probably a little low for hygro then? I eventually I would like to upgrade to a led lighting system, but this has to work for now. What do you think about baby tears (hc) or a red tiger lotus? The anacharis and the sword are going crazy.
 
Also what about adding two 23 w lights? Would that help at all or be more trouble than it is worth.
 
yea well you dont need to spend that kind of money.

http://www.fishneedit.com/

hc i never had real luck with it.... i would wait until you get better lights for it. it doesnt need at much light as people say but you are really at very low light there. tiger lotus again does better with more light.
 
Don't MH lights run the power bill up like crazy? I would rather wait to be able to afford the LED's and not have my jaw hit the ground every time I get a electric bill.
 
you could always try building them...I'm sure someone around here has done it, if not i could refer you to the person who i bought my led lunar lights off of
 
xVitox said:
you could always try building them...I'm sure someone around here has done it, if not i could refer you to the person who i bought my led lunar lights off of
Click to expand...
I thought about building a pair with some lighting fixtures from lowes, but I couldnt find the specs on them for lumens and spectrum or even kelvin rating.

I will have the money to buy them it will just take some time.
 
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