[Just40Fun]

Do you think this plant

will do ok with a dedicated lamp like this:

I am thinking of buying a matured plant and put a 40w 6500k bulb with reflector 4" directly on top of it. That way I don't have to light up the whole tank but just enough light for that plant. Think it will work?

 

[esarkipato]

I'd bet it would do OK, but can't tell what species that is!!

 

[mrbelvedere]

If it's an amazon sword, most likely. Those things are as tough as nails.

 

[Just40Fun]

It indeed is an Amazon Sword plant, a mother plant. I am thinking instead of using 600w+ (240g x 2.5wpg), if I can use these lamps, it will be 30wx4lamps=120w. Big saving.

By using type of lamp, the lower part of the plants would not receive much lights while the upper part of the leaves will get lots of light. wondering if that will encourage the plants to grow tall and thin.

 

[esarkipato]

Well that makes sense to me. It's interesting how different plants respond differently to lower/higher light levels. For example, Ambulia grows really, really fast with large internodal distances under high light, but compact under lower light. Plants like Glosso or HC tend to grow more compact/lower under high light, and reach for it if there isn't enough.

As for the sword, I guess you would just have to see how it responds. I think that if you are only planning on a few of these plants in a larger tank, it would be MUCH easier to just add the lighting in the area the plant is in. I have no problem growing an array of plants with only a 13w spiral CF bulb, but it's also on a very short tank (12" cube). The 240g would probably have quite a bit of space between the light and the plant, so less light would reach the plant altogether.

As usual, my ultimate advice is "you don't know until you try it"! I guess not that helpful.

Also, I'd say that if you aren't going to plant the whole tank, you really SHOULDN'T put light over the entire length. Sounds like a recipe for algae!

Good luck...

 

[Just40Fun]

I am trying to do something like this:

So the plants covers about 1/4 or 1/3 of the foot print of the tank, besides, swords are tall so the light may not have to penetrate 30" of water since the leaves are like 20"+.

I am planning to buy or trade for some big mother plants since plants grow slowly in this kind of 'low tech' low light situation?

 

[Green Leaf Aquariums]

I have two of those mother plants from them in my 150. Get some more light and be ready cuz there huge!

 

[Just40Fun]

Hey Orlando, how much light are you giving them?

Under my calculation, Using the lamp showing above, I will be giving them: 40w / (1.5ft x 1.5ft x 1ft = 16.8g) = 2.3 wpg which is pretty much low tech low light.