New Lighting for a 150 gallon- 6 ft open top tank.-UPDATED! GROWTH PICS!

[dastowers]

Too make it easier to see the growth difference I cropped these:

[dastowers]

Check out the growth in 5 and half hours on this lotus. Notice the rolled leaf behind the one in the center? This is it now. C02 dialed in and EI ferts (all this morning). Not to be a crazy person but this is amazing!!

[dastowers]

Pearling on the lotus- close up. (water change day is not until tomorrow)

[dastowers]

Not sure if anyone is following this but here is 24 hours later. The curled leaf has grown into the one in front of the largest red discus. Amazing.

[The Dude]

Looks amazing! Your Discus look fantastic and the tank is really filling in nicely

[GreenBliss]

Amazing tank. Very beautiful.

[Sajacobs]

Lights are beautiful. Tank is beautiful. It's amazing to see the plants change. Even the fish stand out.

Do you have co2 on your tank?

[dastowers]

Thank you for the kind comments. Yes, just switched to Co2 a few days ago and to the EI fert system. Was using Excel and Flourish over the three weeks of growth but I did have a great chance to discuss with Tom Barr my system and he suggested I read all I could about Co2 (as I was apprehensive) and make the leap. Goodness..I am glad I did.

The system I decided on is a GLA Ultimate Co2 System with a 15 # cylinder. Added the Oracle Drop Checker. So to help with my learning curve -fail safe wise the tank has a bubble counter, drop checker and a ph controller. Also I am able to watch the fish VERY closely as they are in my office only 6 feet away.

[niko]

Are these lights with the 30 degree angle on the LED?

When you look at the tank in real life is the middle part (where the lights overlap) lit much stronger than the sides?

[dastowers]

These are 75 degree angle lenses suspended about 8 inches above water. You can see a difference where the lights overlap but it is very gradual and reminds almost everyone who sees it of the sunlight streaming through the water. The rippling effect of the overflow/sump return creates beautiful dapples on the ceiling. I couldn't be happier with the choice of lights.

[jart]

Looks great. I guess I consider you to be a bit brave delving into the realm of LEDs when you already knew that T5HOs would do the job. I still have some research to do on LEDs. The link to the site with which you dealt (buildmyled) is helpful.

If you are experiencing that much growth, do you have any plans to dial back the light a bit? If so, will you use a dimmer or merely raise the lights a bit?

Your fish look awesome and you have a very interesting collection of plants. Keep posting pics.

PS on a tank that big, you may want to move the drop checker from time to time to make sure everything is ok.

[Steve001]

Originally Posted by dastowers

Thank you for the kind comments. Yes, just switched to Co2 a few days ago and to the EI fert system. Was using Excel and Flourish over the three weeks of growth but I did have a great chance to discuss with Tom Barr my system and he suggested I read all I could about Co2 (as I was apprehensive) and make the leap. Goodness..I am glad I did.

Using pressurized co2 is a quick learning curve. Once you do it the apprehension everyone seems to have before hand disappears.

[dastowers]

Co2 was a bit of a learning curve. I shorten the photo period to 7 hours per day. The growth with Co2, EI and the lighting was FRIGHTENING. I couldn't cull the plants quickly enough to allow room for the discus. The Blue Hygro has leaves at nearly 6 inches long. That made a single stem almost a 8 inches wide.. The lotus grew so much I removed it and put it in the large Peacock Cichlid tank in the den.

Over the last month I have added L. Atlantis and a few other red plants. Goodness, the dozen or so stems I started with have quadrupled since they have been trimmed several times and I even moved a huge bunch to the Peacock tank. Too much.

Just ordered a great selection of plants from Tom Barr. Excited to see how these do.

[Sajacobs]

Please post pics when you get a chance. After seeing the difference in your plant growth I'm considering adding co2 setup to my tank. It's great to see a newbie can be successful with it.

[dastowers]

I have six (yes 6 tanks) packed with plants now from all the growth in the 150g and a few newly purchased ones that are multiplying.

co2 and Tom Barr's EI are like crack to plants. Truly. Cheap and very easy to do. Additionally I have discus and do a 50% water change every week with RO water as my well has a TDS of nearly 750.