Thanks Byron. Will check that ammonia level for you tonight in the tap water I have set aside. Updates to follow!
New Tank/Nitrifying Bacteria/Dr. Tim's
- Thread starter LMOUTHBASS
- Start date
Hey Byron - sorry its been a few days. I've been working some late nights and getting home and setting up a few new tanks! haha Ohhh the addiction...
I still have a jar of tap water sitting out on my counter but haven't tested it yet because I can't find my gh/kh instructions and color chart and I've been moving tanks, fish and supplies the past few weeks from my old place. haha
Anyhow, I'm going to try to get that info posted over the weekend, but in the meantime I was wondering if we can talk lighting a little bit more...
I haven't been able to find any details on the Beam Works LED I have (72") but I'm going to research that a little bit more.
Generally speaking though, I have a bunch of Sword plants (various species, Echinodorus "Red Diamond", Echinodorus "Rose", Echinodorus parviflorus, Echinodorus bleheri, Echinodorus americanus, Echinodorus peruensis,Echinodorus argentinensis),Java Moss, Anubia Nana,
Then I ordered a big plant pack that included:
Pigmy Chain Sword, Echinodorus 'Oriental' Sword (I got a lot of this and it doesn't seem to be doing great a week in my tank or so), Hygrophila corymbosa (Giant hygro, Temple plant), star grass, MYRIOPHYLLUM AQUATICUM, Parrots Feather, Rotala Rotundifolia, Alternanthera reineckii roseafolia, Nesaea pedicellata 'Golden, Limnophila aromatica 'hippuroides', babytears HEMIANTHUS MICRANTHEMOIDES, CABOMBAPURPLE CABOMBA PALAEFORMIS, purple Cabomba,STARREPENS Staurogyne repens, Dwarf PennyWort,and also DOWNOI POGOSTEMON HELFERI, Downoi
I know that's a crazy long list, I just cut and pasted from my order receipt. So, with that list, I tried to get some reds/greens and purples into the tank which I know have diff lighting requirements, but generally speaking, would you have any general light suggestions, I know you mentioned that you like 6700K T8... I want to be able to grow just about anything in this 130 gallon tank and I'm going to look into CO2 as well... If you had to suggest one lighting type/fixture should I go T5 6700K full spectrum or perhaps LED... and if LED what type of lamp?
I've been doing a bunch of reading on lighting and I see that 2-3 watts per gallon seems to be the general guideline for non-led lighting while led is rated in lumens and par etc and quite honestly my head is spinning trying to figure this all out. This will be for the tank with the Beam Works light I mentioned before so I suppose I need to figure out exactly what kind of light it is, but like I mentioned before the LFS said it is def a very bright, SW oriented light... think i would work for those plants long term, if not I want to figure out what type of lighting I should have? I'm trying to find more info on that light now though. Also setting up my 72 gallon, but think I'll go low light to mid light unless I can really figure this all out.
On the 72 gallon tank, for right now I have a 48" Aqueon LED.. this is it right here:
http://www.aqueonproducts.com/products/modular-led-aquarium-fixture.htm
At the moment I only have one light strip in the ballast, but I can add up to two more. Before I do that though, I wanted to check with you and see what you think? Can this light grow plants with a total of three light strips in it, and if so would it be low light only or could I do a wider variety including high light plants? Or, will it not be worth using and should I grab a different light?
That's a boatload of info I just threw out there, I know lol... guess if I could just get some basic ideas of what type of lighting 'should' work given my tanks and plants that would be a huge help. I'm also going to get those other parameters (kh/gh) over the weekend, but as we talked about earlier, soft water, ph out of the tap is 7.5 but rapidly drops to about 6.0 with the softness of the water
Thanks again for your help!
I still have a jar of tap water sitting out on my counter but haven't tested it yet because I can't find my gh/kh instructions and color chart and I've been moving tanks, fish and supplies the past few weeks from my old place. haha
Anyhow, I'm going to try to get that info posted over the weekend, but in the meantime I was wondering if we can talk lighting a little bit more...
I haven't been able to find any details on the Beam Works LED I have (72") but I'm going to research that a little bit more.
Generally speaking though, I have a bunch of Sword plants (various species, Echinodorus "Red Diamond", Echinodorus "Rose", Echinodorus parviflorus, Echinodorus bleheri, Echinodorus americanus, Echinodorus peruensis,Echinodorus argentinensis),Java Moss, Anubia Nana,
Then I ordered a big plant pack that included:
Pigmy Chain Sword, Echinodorus 'Oriental' Sword (I got a lot of this and it doesn't seem to be doing great a week in my tank or so), Hygrophila corymbosa (Giant hygro, Temple plant), star grass, MYRIOPHYLLUM AQUATICUM, Parrots Feather, Rotala Rotundifolia, Alternanthera reineckii roseafolia, Nesaea pedicellata 'Golden, Limnophila aromatica 'hippuroides', babytears HEMIANTHUS MICRANTHEMOIDES, CABOMBAPURPLE CABOMBA PALAEFORMIS, purple Cabomba,STARREPENS Staurogyne repens, Dwarf PennyWort,and also DOWNOI POGOSTEMON HELFERI, Downoi
I know that's a crazy long list, I just cut and pasted from my order receipt. So, with that list, I tried to get some reds/greens and purples into the tank which I know have diff lighting requirements, but generally speaking, would you have any general light suggestions, I know you mentioned that you like 6700K T8... I want to be able to grow just about anything in this 130 gallon tank and I'm going to look into CO2 as well... If you had to suggest one lighting type/fixture should I go T5 6700K full spectrum or perhaps LED... and if LED what type of lamp?
I've been doing a bunch of reading on lighting and I see that 2-3 watts per gallon seems to be the general guideline for non-led lighting while led is rated in lumens and par etc and quite honestly my head is spinning trying to figure this all out. This will be for the tank with the Beam Works light I mentioned before so I suppose I need to figure out exactly what kind of light it is, but like I mentioned before the LFS said it is def a very bright, SW oriented light... think i would work for those plants long term, if not I want to figure out what type of lighting I should have? I'm trying to find more info on that light now though. Also setting up my 72 gallon, but think I'll go low light to mid light unless I can really figure this all out.
On the 72 gallon tank, for right now I have a 48" Aqueon LED.. this is it right here:
http://www.aqueonproducts.com/products/modular-led-aquarium-fixture.htm
At the moment I only have one light strip in the ballast, but I can add up to two more. Before I do that though, I wanted to check with you and see what you think? Can this light grow plants with a total of three light strips in it, and if so would it be low light only or could I do a wider variety including high light plants? Or, will it not be worth using and should I grab a different light?
That's a boatload of info I just threw out there, I know lol... guess if I could just get some basic ideas of what type of lighting 'should' work given my tanks and plants that would be a huge help. I'm also going to get those other parameters (kh/gh) over the weekend, but as we talked about earlier, soft water, ph out of the tap is 7.5 but rapidly drops to about 6.0 with the softness of the water
Thanks again for your help!
Last edited:
Byron Amazonas
AC Members
I can offer a few suggestions. First is, you can't use watts as a measurement of light intensity except when comparing identical tubes/bulbs. By this I mean comparing a 10w GE Daylight CFL bulb to a 13w GE Daylight CFL bulb, where the latter will obviously be more intense (= brighter) than the former because they are the same thing. But a 32w GE Daylight fluorescent tube and a 32w Life-Glo tube are not the same so there is no reason to think the light each produces will be the same intensity--and in fact, it is not. Watts is simply the measurement of the amount of energy a tube or bulb uses to produce the light. And while in the old days we could use watts as a fairly accurate indicator of brightness because all bulbs were much the same, today there are newer tubes/bulbs using less energy to produce more light.
Second, the watts per gallon was a bit misleading to begin with. Even with the T8 tubes I use, I have less than 1 watt per gallon, and I still read sources written recently that say this is impossible for planted tanks. It all depends upon the sort of planted tank one wants.
On LED light, I have very little experience so I cannot say if what you have linked is good or bad. For one thing, there is no data on that light as to its intensity or comparison to other lighting. Others with LED experience will have to help you here.
On the list of plants, you will need fairly bright lighting and CO2 to be successful with some of these. I have or have tried many of them, certainly not all, and I have what I consider moderate light and no diffused CO2. Some thrive, others will have fallen apart in a few weeks.
On the testing, I think we have the GH, KH and pH resolved. It was the ammonia, nitrite or nitrate in the tap water that you were going to test. Any of all of these may be present, or may not (hopefully). These have nothing to do with the plants, just general info one should know about their source water.
Byron.
Second, the watts per gallon was a bit misleading to begin with. Even with the T8 tubes I use, I have less than 1 watt per gallon, and I still read sources written recently that say this is impossible for planted tanks. It all depends upon the sort of planted tank one wants.
On LED light, I have very little experience so I cannot say if what you have linked is good or bad. For one thing, there is no data on that light as to its intensity or comparison to other lighting. Others with LED experience will have to help you here.
On the list of plants, you will need fairly bright lighting and CO2 to be successful with some of these. I have or have tried many of them, certainly not all, and I have what I consider moderate light and no diffused CO2. Some thrive, others will have fallen apart in a few weeks.
On the testing, I think we have the GH, KH and pH resolved. It was the ammonia, nitrite or nitrate in the tap water that you were going to test. Any of all of these may be present, or may not (hopefully). These have nothing to do with the plants, just general info one should know about their source water.
Byron.
Gotcha. Thanks Byron. My heads been spinning with all the moving around I've been doing this past week. You're right, we did figure through the kh/gh when I looked up the MWRA info. Slipped my mind.
I will test the ammonia/nitrite and nitrate in the tap water itself.
I will test the ammonia/nitrite and nitrate in the tap water itself.
Sorry its been so long in between posts! Been moving and kept forgetting. Anyhow, tested the tap water, and it does contain ammonia in it. Comes out at .25, no nitrite though.
I'm considering getting an RO unit...
I'm considering getting an RO unit...
Byron Amazonas
AC Members
This answers the ammonia question. This is so low I would not worry. With an acidic pH, the ammonia in the tap water added to the aquarium will change into ammonium, and the plants/bacteria will take it up. You could use a conditioner that detoxifies ammonia if you want to be really safe, though with this low a level it is probably not worth it, but up to you. Of course, the ammonia in the tap water might vary from time to time; perhaps you could check with the water folks.
RO is not going to be of much help here, in fact the opposite. It will remove the minimal mineral and you will have to replace it. I think you're fine, now that we have things sorted out..but don't hesitate to post if I have missed an issue in all this.
Byron.
Gotcha. Ok, thanks for all your help Byron. I'll nix the Ro idea. I do use Prime when I change the water anyhow.
One last question I just thought of... with a ph at 6 or less, how long does it take for the ammonia to convert to ammonium on its own? Any ideas?
Thanks!
One last question I just thought of... with a ph at 6 or less, how long does it take for the ammonia to convert to ammonium on its own? Any ideas?
Thanks!
Byron Amazonas
AC Members
That is something I have not come across. I would assume it is fairly quick; the ammonia detoxifiers such as those in Prime do the detoxification by this process. It has to do with positive and negative-charged ions. Plants can effect this change internally when they take up ammonia in basic water and change it into ammonium in order to then assimilate the ammonium as their nitrogen. B.
