Thinking of going high tech to low tech

I think my lights are on for about 12 hours per day. I agree - maybe it's worth trying cutting back. I hadn't thought about that with the nitrates - if everything slows down, then nitrate uptake should be slowed a bit.

There is also the aesthetic aspect - the plants in the 55g can grow an inch per day (h. polysperma). That usually means a big gap between nodes on the plant stems as well. Plants get very gangly very quickly as you have to cut them down.


As I mentioned - I can't believe how good the 30g tanks are growing. I got the CO2 setup right around the same time as the lights. I kind of jumped the gun as far as the technical setup by changing two control variables at the same time.

On the grand experiment - if I shut all of this off and it goes well, I may have a really nice CO2 set for you!!
 
I don't use Co2. I just use extra lighting and Kent Fert. Actually in my heaviest planted tank I only have the 1 bulb. It gets a lot of natural light but no direct sunlight. Here are picks of my heaviest planted tank (55 gallon Angel/Community) before and after I trimmed it back and the last pick is my 110 which has two 4 foot bulbs on a 5 foot tank....

55.jpg 55 2-4-2008.jpg 2-23-2008.JPG
 
TheFanatic said:
I don't use Co2. I just use extra lighting and Kent Fert. Actually in my heaviest planted tank I only have the 1 bulb. It gets a lot of natural light but no direct sunlight. Here are picks of my heaviest planted tank (55 gallon Angel/Community) before and after I trimmed it back and the last pick is my 110 which has two 4 foot bulbs on a 5 foot tank....
Click to expand...

How often do you use the Kent ferts. I assume it is pretty similar to Flourish. Do you just the follow the label? I think Flourish calls for weekly dosing.
 
maxthedog123 said:
How often do you use the Kent ferts. I assume it is pretty similar to Flourish. Do you just the follow the label? I think Flourish calls for weekly dosing.
Click to expand...

I don't really go by anything on the bottle. Just a squirt on each side of the tank a couple times a week. Also whenever I do water changes I add some. I used to add a squirt to each 3 gallon bucket, but now I fill the tank straight from the tap and add the chemicals separately. So I add dechlorinator and some fert each time I do a water change.
 
More light so it is in balance with the co2 and ferts. The reason your hygro looks leggy is because it wants more light. As stem plants shoot up they tend to block the amount of light getting to the bottom of the stem which cause the leggy look- ie spacing between leaves.

I am a big fan low low tech tanks. Of my 14 planted tanks, only one is high light co2 added, 3 are moderate light (about 2wpg) and 10 are low tech jungles (.9-1.5 wpg).
 
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