gerrard00
07-05-2011, 12:08 PM
I have a 72 gallon bow front. It's lightly planted with 3 amazon swords, vals, assorted anubias and some floating water sprite. I have zero interest in doing C02. I currently have two light fixtures, each with two 28 watt bulbs, which works out to 112 watts of lighting. I dose Flourish, flourish trace, excel, potassium and iron chelate. I also use flourish tabs under each sword. I do 50% wcs daily. I started out with a florite substrate, but I switched to "natural sand" a few months ago.
The water sprite is growing like a weed and the anubias are doing well enough for my tastes. Unfortunately, my amazon swords are not growing well and the leaves are getting brown as they grow larger. Doing some research, I started to suspect that I had too little lighting and I have just ordered a new T5HO light. That light has two 54 watt bulbs. My original plan was to use the new fixture with one of my old 56 watt fixtures for a total of 164 watts.
Doing some further reading, I have found threads on the planted tank forums that suggest that two 54 watt bulbs would be more than enough light for the tank by themselves. That's less than the 112 watts I have on the tank now and I've always thought that the tank was dim. I'm also guessing that the new fixture by itself would have less light spread than the two older fixtures that are currently on the tank. Have I wasted my money?
I'm not looking for rapid growth or anything. I just want my plants to be as healthy as possible within the limitation I've set forth. I'm really confused and would appreciate any experience folks can share with me.
The water sprite is growing like a weed and the anubias are doing well enough for my tastes. Unfortunately, my amazon swords are not growing well and the leaves are getting brown as they grow larger. Doing some research, I started to suspect that I had too little lighting and I have just ordered a new T5HO light. That light has two 54 watt bulbs. My original plan was to use the new fixture with one of my old 56 watt fixtures for a total of 164 watts.
Doing some further reading, I have found threads on the planted tank forums that suggest that two 54 watt bulbs would be more than enough light for the tank by themselves. That's less than the 112 watts I have on the tank now and I've always thought that the tank was dim. I'm also guessing that the new fixture by itself would have less light spread than the two older fixtures that are currently on the tank. Have I wasted my money?
I'm not looking for rapid growth or anything. I just want my plants to be as healthy as possible within the limitation I've set forth. I'm really confused and would appreciate any experience folks can share with me.