[Josh-HL]

Hi

I have a 240L (about 63 US gallons) tank, dimensions 121 x 41 x 55 cm and I have 4x 54w however I am only using 2 of them at the moment as I'm not sure if this is too much light or not? They're mounted on top of the tank, and I'm using compressed co2 with daily ferts.

At the moment the tank only has hemianthus callitrichoids cuba starting to carpet, some vallis, weeping moss, Bacopa australis, Rotala sp. ''green'' and I'm looking to add a few red plants in along with some other stem plants probably. Just depends on what kind of lighting I go with I suppose.

So shall I use all 4? I did put a couple red plants in the tank not sure what they were but they turned green within a couple days. I'm guessing this tank is currently around medium light at roughly 0.5w per litre, or shall I go for all 4 x 54w and have around 1w per litre, or maybe use 3 of them?

 

[Kathyy]

4 bulbs is too much for many people. If you can handle it then go for it. I run a lot of light and the tank got quite the case of BBA when I missed a couple of water changes. Start by turning on the additional fixture for an hour a day and see what happens. Add an hour a week and watch closely. You may decide to increase the fertilization. I hope your fertilizers are complete and provide nitrogen, phosphorus as well as the usual potassium, iron and micros.

You cannot tell whether a light fixture is providing high, medium or low light by dividing watts by gallons or liters. That sort of applied to standard shaped tanks with T12 bulbs. T5 bulbs are brighter and the reflectors can be really good. If your bulbs are a bit apart and you can see a reflection on either side so that 2 bulb fixture looks like it has 6 bulbs then you have a very efficient fixture. See the sticky thread in the Lighting forum for how it all works.

 

[Josh-HL]

Thanks, yeah I know you can really work out the lighting based on that old method but kinda gives a rough idea.

I'll try just adding more light for an hour, see how that goes. Would you recommend doing this at a certain point during the time the lights are on?

 

[stevenjohn21]

I have the sane over a 75 gallon and I got too much algae . I put some insect mesh over the splash guard and I'm happy to say I've never seen algae since !

 

[Josh-HL]

Just found this, it's exactly the same tank as mine with the same light unit. 4x 54w has worked well in there http://www.tropica.com/en/layouts/layout-62-(240l)/description.aspx

 

[Andrewtfw]

Just found this, it's exactly the same tank as mine with the same light unit. 4x 54w has worked well in there http://www.tropica.com/en/layouts/layout-62-(240l)/description.aspx

That tank is also running CO2. Are you?

 

[Kathyy]

So it says in the first post, tank has CO2 on it. Go for it but do start out slowly and watch the tank closely is all. Plenty of people have done fine with that amount of light and just as many weren't happy with the outcome. Your lights might be brighter than the lights on that tank too.

 

[Andrewtfw]

So it says in the first post, tank has CO2 on it

Sorry, missed that in the first post. I went back to the link again. For all the information given, little is known in terms of which ferts are being used, how they are being used (what combinations), water changes, and hours of light per day (all bulbs for the same length of time?). As Kathy said, you will likely be fine with the amount of lighting you have. You can always back down the lights and/or increase the co2/ferts. Keep us posted.

 

[Josh-HL]

Thanks for the replies. I'll think I'll give it a go with the 4, just adding small amounts of time each week. The hc I planted this week has already started spreading with just 2 bulbs so its probably alright, I'd just like the red plants to stay red. Maybe I'm just missing something else, iron or something I'm not sure.

 

[Josh-HL]

Just put the other 2 bulbs on top of the tank, i had to move the other 2 to the back of the tank so it doesn't really light the very front of the tank. So what I'm thinking of trying is 3.5 hours on the rear lights, 1 hour of all 4 then 3.5 hours of the front lights. So 8 hours total.

My current setup is just 2 bulbs on for 9 hours.

Will try this out and see how it goes, shouldn't be much difference to previously, just an hour of high light.