Lights For Planted Tank??

[cichlid7]

I am setting up a 1350 (L) x 600 (W) x 500 (H) planted tank and just wondering if 2 x 150 watt Metal Halides would be ok or would they be too much

Tank is going to have

Discus

Rams

Neons

GBA's

Cory's

SAE's

possibly clown loaches

And lots of plants

[Warren]

Sounds about right to me. It's a lot of light though so you'll need to have perfect water or you'll get a lot of algae. The planted will grow like mad as well. You'll end up with around 100mm a day on Cabomba and one new leaf every 2 days on Sword plants. Most other stem plants will grow between 25-50mm a day as well. You'll have to trim most plants once a week and some twice a week. You'll also need to do 50% water changes once a week so the nutrient level doesn't hit the algae break-out point. With this much light you'll have to let the plants grow berserk by maintaining excellent water quality and fertilising twice daily. If the plants aren't out competing the algae the all you'll have is algae...

I had a little less light than this and had to use RO water mineralised with some of the basic salts found in natural waterways and also server as plant macro-nutrient. I used a tailored PMDD twice daily to maintain the system. Phosphate and Nitrate are you enemy. Phosphate needs to be unmeasurable or you get algae. Nitrate needs to be about 10ppm so you don't get cyno. Time teaches you the correct does rate and mix for you PMDD. Read the Sears Conlin report on The Krib. It teaches you pretty much everything you need to know and the knowledge you gain actually works.

http://www.thekrib.com/Plants/Fertilize ... onlin.html

[Dixon1990]

Only start with a few plants lol

[cichlid7]

Ok don't know if this will work but

What about i start with the MH's to get the tank going well then have t8's for 2 days then 1 day MH then 2 days t8's etc.....

will that work

[Luke*]

Actually nitrate is your friend.. use it as the nutrient limiter of algae.. the plants will be using a lot so you add just enough to meet their requirements (and not the algae). Great level of light IMO

[Warren]

Actually nitrate is your friend.. use it as the nutrient limiter of algae.. the plants will be using a lot so you add just enough to meet their requirements (and not the algae). Great level of light IMO

Nitrate is really only useful to stop cyno. Plants use very little nitrate compared to ammonium due to the fact it is much more difficult for the plant to use nitrate. In a well planted tank nitrate is usually in short supply because the plants use up the ammonium which would normally get converted to nitrate in the filter. Most non planted tanks have high nitrate levels (greater than 20ppm) which is detrimental to plant growth, promotes algae an begins to get toxin to some fish species. Between 10-15ppm is a good level for nitrate where cyno does not form easily, it isn't toxin to the fish and other forms of algae cannot get started. If the nitrate is 0ppm cyno can take hold quite nicely (as it often does in new tanks) due to it's ability to fix on the dissolved nitrogen gas in the water.

[VinsonMassif]

Nitrate is really only useful to stop cyno. Plants use very little nitrate compared to ammonium due to the fact it is much more difficult for the plant to use nitrate.

Yes plants are able to effectively outcompete the nitrifying bacteria for ammonia but it is not really much more metabolically taxing for them to convert Nitrate when necessary.

In a heavily planted tank with medium to high lighting and appropriate dosing of Carbon then your Nitrate will be less than necessary to keep up with the plants requirements. Therefore to keep the plants growing you must dose to ~15ppm.

So really Nitrate is really more useful than to just stop cyano in some settings.

If you have excess ammonia and an imbalance in Nitrate and Potassium then you are likely to have increased algal growth. Some plant guru's recommend dosing of Potassium to 20ppm to give the plants a better opportunity to outcompete the algae in your tank.

[Warren]

Don't forget good quantities of Magnesium too...