Lighting questions for a tannin stained planted tank

BagelDog

BagelDog

AC Members
Apr 21, 2009
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Montana
I have a 20 gallon planted tank with driftwood. The tannins are slowly leaching out and I didn't know if this will reduce the light that my plants receive.

If it does reduce the light my plants intake, how should I adjust to compensate? Will I need a higher spectrum bulb, more wattage?
 
I'm not sure how much of the usable light would be blocked or how to compensate, but I can suggest a way to fight the tannins. I discovered by accident that the Fluval nitrate remover (and probably other absorbent resin products) does a pretty good job of absorbing tannins. I take the bag out of my HOB filter every couple of weeks, soak it in salt water to "recharge", and overnight it looks like I've steeped a container of strong tea.
 
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Thanks for the advice but I actually went out of my way for the stained look. I was going for an Amazon look. I'll post some pics in a bit.
 
you probably dont need more light. but in order to take a good stab at whether or not you need more or less light we need to know how much light you have on top of your tank. how big your tank is, what type of plants you have and what type of plants you plan to keep.

also, changing the K in your lights doesn't give you more or less light, it just moves it along the spectrum in either a better or worse way depending on what K level you are already at.
 
Unless your water is really "murky" looking....the tannins won't have any real impact.
 
Thanks for the info. No, my tank isn't that murky, just nicely tinted. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't neglecting my plants.

Great Jorb Coach Z! (Sorry, I couldn't help myself)
Thanks every one.
 
It is going to depend on the K rating though, in this case. The tank looks yellow/brown because light going through it is having the other colours removed from it more than the yellow/orange/red end - specifically the blue end of the spectrum. So high K value lights, with a bluer light, will be more absorbed than the yellower lights with a lower K value.
 
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