[ZadiBeni]

Hi,
I am looking to upgrade my lighting to see if I may achieve better plant growth/carpeting. My tank is an Aqueon 29 gallon, 30.25"Lx12.5"WX18.75"H. Current light is an Aqueon LED OptiBright Plus. The tank has CO2 injection. Plants are pearlweed, dwarf baby tears and monte carlo.The pearlweed is growing well. Dwarf baby tears are slowly carpeting and a little lanky.

Would I be aiming for 1 watt per liter (29 gallons = 110L)?

I was looking at the following lights as options, but would be open to others:
Radion XR15 FW ProG2. Website says this one is 95W, so maybe 1 would be enough? I am not sure what the spread would be though, but I read somewhere that it's 3 feet (seems like a lot).
Kessil A160WE Tuna Sun: 40 watts, so I was thinking I would need 2 of them. Spread is 12"-24" from what I read.

Please let me know if you have any thoughts. Thank you.

 

[minorhero]

Hi,
I am looking to upgrade my lighting to see if I may achieve better plant growth/carpeting. My tank is an Aqueon 29 gallon, 30.25"Lx12.5"WX18.75"H. Current light is an Aqueon LED OptiBright Plus. The tank has CO2 injection. Plants are pearlweed, dwarf baby tears and monte carlo.The pearlweed is growing well. Dwarf baby tears are slowly carpeting and a little lanky.

Would I be aiming for 1 watt per liter (29 gallons = 110L)?

I was looking at the following lights as options, but would be open to others:
Radion XR15 FW ProG2. Website says this one is 95W, so maybe 1 would be enough? I am not sure what the spread would be though, but I read somewhere that it's 3 feet (seems like a lot).
Kessil A160WE Tuna Sun: 40 watts, so I was thinking I would need 2 of them. Spread is 12"-24" from what I read.

Please let me know if you have any thoughts. Thank you.

The watt per gallon (or liter) rule is from before LEDs which are considerably more efficient. If possible you want to look at par/ppfd at substrate which is a better unit of measurement. For medium - high light you want 30-80 par/ppfd at substrate. Just as guide anyway.

Another thing to consider are fertilizer because with increased light will come increased uptake of fertilizer. What are you using currently?

The first light you mentioned is a bit overkill.. You could certainly use 1 kessil and raise it up higher. Other options include twinstar, or chihiros wrgb.

 

[ZadiBeni]

The watt per gallon (or liter) rule is from before LEDs which are considerably more efficient. If possible you want to look at par/ppfd at substrate which is a better unit of measurement. For medium - high light you want 30-80 par/ppfd at substrate. Just as guide anyway.

Another thing to consider are fertilizer because with increased light will come increased uptake of fertilizer. What are you using currently?

The first light you mentioned is a bit overkill.. You could certainly use 1 kessil and raise it up higher. Other options include twinstar, or chihiros wrgb.

Thank you for the response.

For fertilizer, I recently used Seachem Fluorish tabs and put 10 tabs (a whole bag) in about 2 weeks ago. Other than that, I have a bottle of Seachem Fluorish, but haven't used it much and honestly haven't developed a fertilizing regimen. The tank contains fish and shrimp; I use RO water and remineralize it using a TDS meter.

Maybe I should start with fertilizing?

 

[longrun808]

I'm not sure the following is fully relevant, but let me chime in:

I have the same Aqueon 29 gallon tank, and the same Aqueon LED OptiBright Plus lights as you. But I use two of the lights. And my tank is low tech, dirted, no CO2 and no fertilizers of any kind.

So based on my experience I would say you need more light.

As minorhiro suggested - the Watt rating of a light just tells you how much electrical power it draws, but does not tell you how bright it actually is. For example, an inefficient light might have a high watt rating, but most of that power goes to heat. So it is not informative to compare lights with different technologies via watt ratings.

 

[ZadiBeni]

Nice looking tank.

Thank you for the response. It seems like going by watts isn't very helpful.

Here is my tank. There is some hair algae (at least I think that is what it is) that I am trying to keep at bay. The pearl weed seems to be growing pretty well. The right side of the tank has baby dwarf tears and monte carlo.

 

[longrun808]

That pearlweed looks nice! Makes me want to try CO2!

 

[ZadiBeni]

That pearlweed looks nice! Makes me want to try CO2!

thank you. Yes it seems to be growing well. Very easy to grow. This is my first tank using CO2. It’s been a lot of fun.

That pearlweed looks nice! Makes me want to try CO2!

ive been trying to trim and shape it kinda like how people do with boxwood in their gardens.

 

[minorhero]

Thank you for the response.

For fertilizer, I recently used Seachem Fluorish tabs and put 10 tabs (a whole bag) in about 2 weeks ago. Other than that, I have a bottle of Seachem Fluorish, but haven't used it much and honestly haven't developed a fertilizing regimen. The tank contains fish and shrimp; I use RO water and remineralize it using a TDS meter.

Maybe I should start with fertilizing?

You should definitely start fertilizing. Your tank will benefit greatly from it right now and that will increase once you increase your light. There are many systems out there but personally I like to keep it simple. I use Nicolg Thrive which you add once to twice a week (depending on how much light and plant growth you have) and its an all in one solution. It requires at least a 50% (I aim for 70+) water change once a week but I think this is just good practice regardless for dealing with algae and keeping water quality high.

 

[ZadiBeni]

You should definitely start fertilizing. Your tank will benefit greatly from it right now and that will increase once you increase your light. There are many systems out there but personally I like to keep it simple. I use Nicolg Thrive which you add once to twice a week (depending on how much light and plant growth you have) and its an all in one solution. It requires at least a 50% (I aim for 70+) water change once a week but I think this is just good practice regardless for dealing with algae and keeping water quality high.

Yes I will start fertilizing. I have Seachem flourish that I’ll use until I run out. I’ll look into the one you recommended too.

 

[minorhero]

Yes I will start fertilizing. I have Seachem flourish that I’ll use until I run out. I’ll look into the one you recommended too.

Seachem flourish is essentially just micro nutrients. In other words it won't keep your plants happy by itself especially in a heavily planted tank. I would immediately buy a complete fertilizer solution and start using that. If you want to stick with seachem you can do so but you will need to buy an additional 4+ other bottles and dose at different levels and different times (their system kind of sucks). That's why I recommend an all in one solution.

Flourish is more for tanks with a lot of fish and very few plants. In those tanks it can work fine by itself. But its not really good for anything else.

 

[ZadiBeni]

I just got back from the local fish store and I picked up a bottle of UNS All In One since that’s what they had in stock. I’ll give it a try.

They didn’t have the Kessil lights or the Radion XR 15 FW in stock so I wasn’t able to see what they looked like in person.

I’ll keep doing my research.

 

[ZadiBeni]

I went with 2 of the Kessil A160We Tuna Sun and the mounts. I bought a pump bottle of All In One by UNS since it’s what they had at a local fish shop.

I like the lights. They’ve been running for about 10 days. No excess algae growth. The hair algae or whatever’s growing in the tank has stayed much the same.

 

[longrun808]

Looks nice! Are you using a lid? Glass?

 

[ZadiBeni]

Thank you. There is no lid.

 

[ZadiBeni]

Plants are growing well.

 

[ZadiBeni]

Trimmed up