Fluval Mini Power Compact Lamp - 13W

[jbig]

I have a Fluval Mini Power Compact Lamp - 13W that i was originally using on a 2g fluval spec but i am no longer using it. I was going to place the fixture on my 8g aqeuon evolve but i am curious how much light this would give me (high,medium,low?)

I know, I know, I should do my PAR research. I understand the light's distance from the substrate aspect but i still don't know how to gauge where any of the fixtures i have would stand in terms of PAR.

A little help please!

[Hoppy]

How much PAR you would get depends a lot on the reflector, if any, and the distance from the bulb. I don't know how anyone can come up with a good guess on PAR without a lot more information.

[jbig]

The bulb would be approx. 14in from substrate.

I'm still a bit of a noob when it comes to lighting so i'm not sure what you mean by a reflector?

[J.Kirk]

I have 2 Fluval Mini compacts on my Evolve 8 gal because 1 just wasn't cutting it. Looked to dim IMO, i would say with 1 your at low and with 2 you bump up to medium-high. I am growing a crypt parva foreground well with these and the ludwigia repens in the back grows almost to the surface in 2 weeks. HTH

[somewhatshocked]

You'll definitely be in the area of nice, low light.

Two fixtures almost necessitates the need for dosing and CO2.

I ran three on my Ebi but was able to find the sweet spot with light-CO2-ferts.

[jbig]

Thanks for the info!

right now i have java moss, anubias nana, jungle val, and a windelov java fernin the tank. They seem to be doing ok with the stock light. I want to put the fluval fixture on but i'm afraid this will be too much for the java moss.

any thoughts?

[somewhatshocked]

A single 13W Fluval fixture will be fine on your tank and fine for moss.

[R.sok]

I used to run one of those fluval 13 watts in my 8 gallon biocube, I really like them as they're adjustable & you can mount them all over the place, but it certainly isn't enough for medium light plants, low light plants on the other hand, you'll be fine with. The beam pattern on them mostly concentrates on a small area

[Ductapemaster]

I don't have any real data like PAR to back up my claims, but I put one of those over my Evolve 4 instead of the stock LED light and my plants were growing pretty slowly. I went back to the stock light and there has been an explosion of growth in the last couple weeks! Nothing else has changed, same fert routine, etc.

You might want to stick with the stock fixture, it might be better than you would think.

[jbig]

thanks everyone, i'm going to give it a shot and see how the plants take.

Originally Posted by Ductapemaster

I don't have any real data like PAR to back up my claims, but I put one of those over my Evolve 4 instead of the stock LED light and my plants were growing pretty slowly. I went back to the stock light and there has been an explosion of growth in the last couple weeks! Nothing else has changed, same fert routine, etc.

You might want to stick with the stock fixture, it might be better than you would think.

ductape, what kind of plants are you growing? i'm not dosing anything in this tank except a single root tab.

[R.sok]

I still do run the fluval 13watt on my biocube, but it's also paired up with a clip on desklamp 6500k 15watt cfl

[jbig]

Originally Posted by R.sok

I still do run the fluval 13watt on my biocube, but it's also paired up with a clip on desklamp 6500k 15watt cfl

R.sok,

are you dosing anything? I dose excel and comprehensive in my other two tanks but this 8g is my first try without excel/comp. i'm curious to see how much light i could get up to without needing to dose.

[R.sok]

I dose comprehensive, once every 4 days, but just barely.

[R.sok]

& here is the tank 6 months ago

No special substrate, just sand & no root tabs

[jbig]

Originally Posted by R.sok

& here is the tank 6 months ago

No special substrate, just sand & no root tabs

tank looks great in both pics. any inhabitants? or is that the reason for the comp every 4 days?