[J.Chatzo]

Hello everyone,

This is my first post and I am a newbie in the hobby of planted aquariums. I've had for 2 years some cryptocoryne and I've added a couple of days ago some monte carlo for carpeting and limnophila sessiliflora. I've also added a basic CO2 nano system from Tropica and some Flourish Tablets to provide all the nutrients the plants require and have a high succes rate. The plants are doing pretty good so far but my aquarium is 40 L, or ~10 Gallon, but I think that the lighting isn't enough for the plants. I read somewhere that it is required to have about 0.5 W lighting per liter for these kind of plants, and my lighting now is 4W. I am able to add some led strips but my concern is that it would be too bright for the fish.

Is it safe to add a total of ~20ish W in a that small aquarium? The fish I have inside is a school of 8 Neon Tetra.

Thank you!

 

[dcutl002]

You may be okay already: too much light will create an algae farm. What brand and model of light are you using? As Tom Barr says, and I am paraphrasing, "plants need CO2, fertilizer, and light with light being the limited factor".

 

[J.Chatzo]

Thanks for the reply,

I am using a Sun-Sun aquarium that has a built-in lighting with a combination of white and rgb colors on it.

I also forgot to mention that I use a liquid flourish fertilizer.

 

[Joeyvan172]

Thanks for the reply,

I am using a Sun-Sun aquarium that has a built-in lighting with a combination of white and rgb colors on it.

I also forgot to mention that I use a liquid flourish fertilizer.

i ran a beamswork light for 10 hours fully planted and no algae

 

[dcutl002]

Well, I have a 10 gallon tank with a Finnex Planted Plus LED light on it and it's output is about 14-15 Watts. I have grown Dwarf Hair Grass with it in the past, but had to raise the light about 4 inches above the tank surface because it was too strong. You can try adding the extra light, but if you do not have enough CO2 and get lots of algae...elevate the light some.

 

[J.Chatzo]

So I did some water parameters tests today that I had some time and the results are the following:

pH : ~6.5-7
gH : 17dGH
kH : 4dGH

How can I lower the GH and what problems does this cause to the aquarium in general??

Also, I add daily or day by day about 15ml of Flourish liquid plant supplement.

Thanks