Absolutely gorgeous tank. Definitely subscribing




Care to elaborate on the switch from LED to T5? I've been in the hobby for a while, but I've just recently been expanding my online resources!

Thanks.
It's just personal preference I guess. I recently installed a 4-bulb t5 fixture for my farm tank. Then I just realize I spend more time looking at the farm tank than my main tank lol.
T5 may lack that punchy Red/Green contrast of high-end RGB led, but it seems to render colors much better. You can easily see the subtle differences between similarly shaded color like yellow-ish green vs green, or orange-ish red vs red.
The ability to mix T5 bulbs to create the color you want is another big reason.

The bulbs are here!

From left to right:
1. Giesemann Aquaflora
2. Giesemann Aquaflora
3. Giesemann Aquapink
4. 2700K
5. PowerVeg 660
6. Giesemann Actinic plus
7. Giesemann Midday
8. Giesemann Aquapink
9. Giesemann Aquaflora
10. Giesemann Aquaflora

All bulbs ON

The color saturation is INSANE!

WOW - the looks glorious!

Mesmerising.


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Very interesting to see the T5's over the tank. Most don't realize that most of the best Dutch style tanks in the world use T5.

Stunning picture with excellent color separation.

Of course, helps to start with good subject matter, and you have got that covered.

Wonderful tank. Looking forward to seeing what if any other differences you notice.

Amazing tank and the new lights bring out all of the color. Well done!

I notice you incorporated some hair grass. Is it E. vivipara or E. acicularis?

Thanks.
I'm just following the steps of the masters . Switching to T5 is inevitable
Need to see how the plants react to the new light. I'm worrying the intensity could be too high.

Been growing very nice looking rotala mac variegated and sunset in the farm tank. The Rotala sunset is almost triple in size.



Seriously thinking about using the Mac Variegated in the display tank. Just need some more time to master the plant and their habits. Due to their leaves size and stunning neon color, they could be used as a small midground group of a few plants, just to draw attention to their area.
Still, no idea how to use the sunset lol

Bump: Thanks.
Not a hair grass.
It's the Eriocaulon sp. feather duster.

Very nice scape! I left T5's for cost reasons and not wanting to change out the bulbs every 1-2 years....But i do agree they're the best.

I've kept a group of R. Mac Variegated for over three years now. Have stunted it a few times, and it barely survived a couple of "events" I have had over the years.

But all in all, while it is moody, it also offers a fantastic display when it's happy. I look at it as being an early indicator. In general, if it's happy, so are most other plants.

And in the pic above, it looks very happy. I would use it.

Now the Sunset. I get it's rare and difficult, but also don't really know where I would use it.

Dat light!! Great bulb choice, looks amazing

Yes, I feel the pain of keeping the Macrandra lol. It's really hard to keep it happy for a long time.
In Asia, people have almost no problem growing the plant. Probably because the fertilizers are usually supplied via roots. I've known a guy keeping it under direct sunlight, no co2, no filter, no flow. Just uses super-super-rich substrate and does daily waterchange. And it grows beautifully in such conditions...

In my tank, the sunset is far less of a hassle. It sometimes stunts but never dies. But I've never been able to grow it this big until now. I've heard it likes higher kH water. My tap is super soft.


It's a hard plant to scape IMO. Similar texture to the Tonina Fluviatilis, just different colors. Unfortunately, the color is quite dark. Dark green stem with dark orangeish/reddish leaves. Polished internet photos may show a vibrant color. But in my tank, the plant looks hardly visible if placed near any off-green plants.

IMO, to use it as a group, it needs to be next to or in front of bright green and fine texture groups to make it really visible. This way, the plant is used as a "dark spot" to enhance the contrast of a bright area. Then again, a moss log probably works better for this purpose .

Tom Barr used the plant to make a row, which, I think, can be also an effective way to use it.

Bump: Thanks!
Coming from LED, my eyes still want some green. Couldn't go all colored bulbs like you or Greggz or Dennis .

Awfully strong cat.

@nntnam I hope you don't mind me adding something to your journal here.

I was looking at your post in the bulb thread, and thought I would bounce over here to look at your dosing.

One thing that caught my eye is the 80% to 90% water change.

Other folks need to understand how much of a difference that makes when comparing their numbers to yours. For some reason the "normal" way is to post ppm in terms of regular EI 50% water change standard.

So when you say you dose NO3:PO4:K at 18.74/7.24/27.49 with 80% water change, that is the same as about 12/4.5/17 if they were 50% water changes.

Just saying it is not as rich as it seems.

Most folks do not understand or take into account accumulation. You have much less accumulation at 80% water change.

On a side note I tried to get folks here to start thinking in terms of "target" dosing. That is dosing the "new" amount of water to a target. Makes more sense to me because you take the WC percentage out of the calculation. After several convoluted attempts, I gave up.

I never thought of it that way, but that makes absolute sense! Thanks, I'm going to play with this idea with my daily testing!