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AquaticLife T5HO Dual Lamp Light Fixtures (36") - Will my plants fry?

2K views 14 replies 9 participants last post by  constanzia 
#1 ·
Lighting:
AquaticLife T5 HO Dual Lamp Light Fixtures (36") + Mounted Legs (Stands on top of a glass hinged top)

http://www.aquaticlife.com/sites/default/files/specsheets/420144.pdf

Tank Dimensions:

length - 36"
width - 13"
height - 16.5"

Plants:
- Floating Riccia
- Java Moss
- Java Ferns
- Peacock Moss
- Marimo Balls
____________________________________________________
Lights are on a timer that runs 7 hours (11:30AM --> 6:30PM)

Will my plants fry or will they be okay?

I do not run CO2 or dose ferts in this tank. More information about this tank can be found in my signature.

Thank you for reading.
 
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#4 ·
I run the aquaticlife fixture on my 55g. It sits 21" from the substrate and I daily dose excel and still needed to run 1 layer of window screen to cut down the brightness due to BBA outbreak.

Since you not going to run any co2 at all, and substrate is much closer, you may need to run 2 layers of window screen like speedkilz suggests.

The plants will be fine. I'd worry about algae.
 
#5 ·
Thanks for the replies guys.

What kind of algae should I expect?

Since it is a CRS breeding tank I was thinking if it is the green algae, they'd munch on it and it would be a good thing for me.

BBA is not too bad a problem for me seeing as my ramshorn usually eat it up. My only real fear would be hair algae lol.

Also, is CO2 dosed primarily to increase plant growth and prevent algae outbreaks? I ask this because I worry giving my plants high light without CO2 will kill them.

Is CO2 recommended just to prevent algae? If so, I will not be risking my livestock/breeding to just prevent algae.

and how much ferts do I need to dose? All I really do for dosing is put root tabs into the substrate... am I going to have to dose Seachem flourish comprehensive? How much and how often?

I thought I would not need to dose ferts because my plants are undemanding in terms of nutrients...

Thanks again for reading. Clarification would be greatly greatly appreciated.

I will also look into using a black window mesh of some sort if I do come home to a massive algae problem.
 
#6 ·
This is only my personal experience and some people won't like it but here goes -

I had two of these fixtures on low tech (no real fert regimen, no CO2 or excel dosing) and I got bad algae on the surface of everything. Plant leaves, rocks, etc.

What I ended up doing (because I am lazy and because I was more worried about my shrimp than about plant growth) is that I tossed in enough floaters (frogbit being my favorite) to cover a good portion of the top of the tank.

This probably cut the visual spectrum of light hitting the substrate in half. I never bothered to measure PAR.

Between the floaters blocking light from the tank and the floaters sucking up nutrients like crazy (and not needing much CO2 since they have access to atmosphere) my algae problems went away pretty quickly and never came back.

The downside to this method is that it can make getting good growth of rooted plants difficult since the floating plants outcompete substrate level plants so easily in this situation.

There is probably a way to manage a balance of sorts but I never bothered to try.
 
#7 ·
If it is a CRS breeding tank then the smartest and easiest thing to do is to cut the amount of light getting to the tank.

Bring the light levels down to match the nutrient levels that you had initially targeted.

IMO, you can make this fixture work for what you want by either raising it up or using some window screening (or both).

Probably wasn't the best option for you to buy for your needs but it can be made to work for you.
 
#9 ·
Thanks for all the replies.

I think I will add floaters that are non-invasive like frogbit or water lettuce for safe measure (and I don't have stem plants so I see no negatives to this solution).

We'll see if I run into any algae problems when I return back to my tank in 3 weeks.

If floaters do not work, I will also implement the window screening idea.

Cheers!
 
#10 ·
I run the 6 bulb 48" version of that light 31 inches from the substrait. I only run two of the bulbs though so it would be the same as your fixture. Expect the potential for all types of algea, Its a very strong light. I ended up high co2, high fert and I have frogbit and lilly pads covering the waters surface to help cut the light also, but i have ran the full spectrum of algea. I have a few tufts of brush algea on the back ground left. For me changes in lighting you can see results good or bad with in a 24 hour period where CO2 and ferts results take more time.
 
#14 ·
I use tap also...but same light fixture being the only thing in common will not determin algea or no algea, unless we all had exact same water fish load, ferts co2 we could say it was too much light, my case was too much light, I could have put more CO2 in the water but I want to keep my fish alive.
 
#15 ·
hey now I have a question concerning algea. I have an aquaticlife T5ho 30" on my 20 gal L I have a clear glass canopy and the fixture is 3" above the clean cover. I use 2 mil of excel daily. and the regular seachem schedule of iron, potassium and the regular flourish. The light is on 8 hours a day. I've got 1 oto in the tank. You'd think I'd have algea but I don't. How come? It couldn't be that measley little bit of excel daily or could it?:confused:
 
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