lights,plants,etc

[Redneck Woman]

Okay everybody, i've got 65 plants coming tommorrow and lights coming tommorrow. I will spread the plants out between my 55 and my 75 gallon tanks.
My husband got a really good deal on lights, the problem however is that they are 260 watts that will go over my 75. Now I am scared that it's just too much light. I have ordered Excel and it's arriving tommorrow also.
It will be at least a couple of months before I can even consider getting a good CO2 sytem. Is it possible to keep algae at bay and maintain good plants with this much light?

 

[Bk718]

Okay everybody, i've got 65 plants coming tommorrow and lights coming tommorrow. I will spread the plants out between my 55 and my 75 gallon tanks.
My husband got a really good deal on lights, the problem however is that they are 260 watts that will go over my 75. Now I am scared that it's just too much light. I have ordered Excel and it's arriving tommorrow also.
It will be at least a couple of months before I can even consider getting a good CO2 sytem. Is it possible to keep algae at bay and maintain good plants with this much light?

65 plants nice, where you ordered from??

260watts over 75g isnt 2 bad, just keep the lights on for 8-10hrs. Also make sure the bulbs are for freshwater and ideal for plants. And careful with excel since it can kill some plants.

 

[Mgamer20o0]

depending on the plants i would look to keep 1/2 the lights on for the full 8-10 hours with a burst in the middle of 2-3 hours of all the lights.

 

[Fishy_Fun]

i have to agree with mgamer on this one.I am also curious to where you bought your plants

 

[loaches r cool]

I take it this is a 4x 65W CFL fixture. That is a bit much without co2. If you can shut off half the lights until you have co2 running I think that would be best. At full power you'd probably need good co2 and a good fert routine to keep algae at bay.

 

[Squawkbert]

^^ or you'll be going throught he excel at a pretty costly rate.



PS - if you're not from Kentucky, I don't want to know why you chose that username.:eek3:

 

[Redneck Woman]

I ordered from Aquarium Plants.com. I have a couple of friends who order from them and always sing their praises. I read a lot of reviews and there were a lot of bad ones but there in turn were a lot of good ones. I wish I knew how to post pictures but I don't. But I will let everyone know how they look.
I will go to Wal-Mart this morning and get a timer. The light fixture has two switches so I can turn them on and off seperatly. I am looking into the DIY C02.
I appreciate your advice.

 

[Redneck Woman]

This may sound like a stupid question but is a small amount of CO2 better than no CO2 at all?

 

[Cory Keeper]

I'm inclined to say yes, almost any carbon is better than none at all. I've had to start dosing nitrates, I can go from 20-25 PPM to 0 PPM in about 5 days. Even with elevated nitrate levels my algae is slowly disappearing with my otos eating it (little fat bellies ) with almost no new algae because the plants out compete the algae.

You might be able to get enough CO2 with about 4-6 yeast bottles as a temporary measure untill you can get a pressurized system.

 

[Redneck Woman]

Thanks for the quick reply. I have a five gallon water bottle and I am considering using this for now. I wish there was a thread here showing different DIY CO2 systems. Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words!!!