Metal halides for papyrus

[Shipmonkey]

Anyone know if 150w metal halide would be sufficient for "king tut" papyrus or would 250w be better? The only other plants in the tank will be water hyacinth.

[AVN]

Depends on size of tank, other than that you seem to have more than enough wattage for a med ~ very high light tank.

[hydrophyte]

That will probably be plenty of light.

What kind of setup is this for? 'King Tut' grows pretty tall.

[Shipmonkey]

It's an open top 240 gallon riparium. I am looking at trying a Nile biotope theme.

[hydrophyte]

Wow that sounds like a cool project. What kinds of fish are you keeping in it?

There are a couple of other Cyperus that don't grow so big that could be easier to manage...

• C. alternifolius var. gracilis
• C. involucratus 'Baby Tut'

There are some other pretty cool plants that you could consider too.

[Shipmonkey]

The planned fish are some different synodontis (eupterus and nigrita), African brown knifes, a polypterus, and some Egyptian mouth brooders if I can find some. The idea of an African arowana sounded appealing, but I've heard they are problematic to raise up.

I'ld looked at some of the smaller papyrus forms. The idea of one hitting about four feet or so seemed like the best option to balance out the size of tank. So the goal is to get a light capable of keeping the papyrus alive and growing some form of floater either water hyacinth or water lettuce.

[hydrophyte]

It sounds like you have it figured out well already.

Those are some cool fish!

[Diana]

I have grown several of the papyrus outdoors, and they do well in full sun. I am now trying one of the dwarfs in a greenhouse. More light than is normal over an aquarium, just not direct sun.

A metal halide might be a good choice over that set up. Do you have something close to a full spectrum, though?

As for 150 or 250, I think that depends on the distance and the reflector. A 150 should be closer, almost touching the taller plants. A 250 could be farther away and still work.

[hydrophyte]

I have grown both 'Baby Tut' and var. gracilis in ripariums and they are not especially demanding of bright light. Both of them did just fine under a pair of HO T5 lamps with good reflectors. I bet that 'King Tut' is comparable.

[Shipmonkey]

It's good to know the papyrus is that picky. I'm hoping that the halides will be enough to keep the floating plants going. Aside from that, the halides are mostly there to give the shimmer effect of the desert sun on the water. I