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Would my set up be "high light"

747 views 3 replies 4 participants last post by  sevendust111 
#1 ·
Alright, so I know this is really vague, but I'm trying to get a better idea of how my tank is set up and just looking for opinions. I have 2 vertically placed CFL over my 10 gallon, both are about 13 inches above substrate. One is a 13watt the other is 23 watt, both 6500k. I recently added DIY co2 and everything in the tank including the dwarf hairgrass is pearling. My tank looks like a snow globe. Would this be an indication that I have achieved "high light". Outside of the hairgrass the highest light plant i have is water sprite, otherwise it's just crypts, amazon sword, and a couple kinds of anubias so I really can't tell. Trying to get a better idea because this set up has only been like this for about 2 days and I want to know if I need to add more light or not so I can work on getting a carpet. I know my best bet would be getting my hands on a PAR meter and checking the output in the tank, but I haven't been able to find anyone that has one and there's no clubs/LFS within 2 hours of me. So based off of what little cryptic information I have given you, what's your take on it? And is there other ways besides going off PAR or watts per gallon that I could use to figure out if I have high light or not?
 
#2 ·
I might leave lighting as is (no more than 6 hour's total) and train my effort's on providing the necessary nutrient's (Macro/micro nutrient's).
Without them ,all the lighting you could throw at the tank will be a detriment to your effort.
More light means more CO2 and nutrient's will be needed t match the light energy being beamed down upon the leaves.
Even with CO2 injection,plant's can perform very nicely with less light than one might imagine.
 
#3 ·
you can measure it in two ways, a electronic device to measure PAR or our eyes.

If you don't have the budget for PARometer that's ok because I think it might be overkill. Our eyes are great to tell if its high light or low light. If your fish tank is sitting in a room and the light is bright enough to light the room, it is high light. if it looks like a dim night light in the corner of a cozy reading room, it is low light. Basically use your eye and compare it to the bright things in life like a lamp.
 
#4 ·
I have a 10g with 2 horizontal 10-watt cfl bulbs in the hood with a guard and no reflector. I would say it gives me medium-low light. With two vertical 13-watt bulbs, you would be in medium-high territory. With a 13 and 23 watt, I would say you are definitely in high light. Cfls have way more par vertically, but less spread.
 
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