About to give up

[ktomminello]

In my dealings with situations like this I have noticed that it helps to remove ALL leaves that are effected, along with any stringy, rotted roots, and float the healthy remaining root and plant in pristine water with a few drops of a fert like seachem flourish or floramax under a compact fluorescent lamp.... Yes, if you've seen my other postings you'll know that I have a great deal of respect for a desk lamp with a compact fluorescent when it comes to supplementing light until proper lighting can be installed.... And I don't use CO2..... YET......

 

[Gillie]

Check out rexgrigg.com he has a whole section that explains how aquarium lighting works

 

[Lifeoffroad]

Hi did you say whether you are using a planted substrate or not?
What fish do you have in there?

I didn't its a gravel substrate with First Layer Litrite mixed in along with Seachem root tabs.

 

[Lifeoffroad]

The wattage isn't as important as the par. I'm not familiar with that hood.
This is probably a really simplified answer for the reflector portion. I'm sure someone can answer it more in depth. But basically if it isn't shiny on the inside of your hood, the light from the top half of the bulb is not going into your tank. You lose most of your par reading because it isn't being reflected back in. Therefore your plants loose that light. A better reflector took my par from being in the low 20's to about 57. All I'm using are two t8 6500 k lights on the 55 and dwarf hair grass is growing. Not as fast as some but growing well. My red plants have rewarded me with better color and growth.

Yeah I believe it has a reflector but I will double check when I'm home. I didn't realize light from the too of the bulbs could be lost like that. When you say PAR what are you referring to. Sorry I am totally new to plants and lighting. I've always just got what made the fish look cool.

 

[Lifeoffroad]

In my dealings with situations like this I have noticed that it helps to remove ALL leaves that are effected, along with any stringy, rotted roots, and float the healthy remaining root and plant in pristine water with a few drops of a fert like seachem flourish or floramax under a compact fluorescent lamp.... Yes, if you've seen my other postings you'll know that I have a great deal of respect for a desk lamp with a compact fluorescent when it comes to supplementing light until proper lighting can be installed.... And I don't use CO2..... YET......

I actually did some of that. I removed all the dead leaves and left just the green. When I did that everything else seemed to start to die faster. When I pull out a plant the root systems are awesome. That's why I'm so confused.

 

[Lifeoffroad]

I didn't its a gravel substrate with First Layer Litrite mixed in along with Seachem root tabs.

Sorry fish are mostly rainbows I think they are listed in my profile.

 

[ztigris]

Par stands for photosyntheticaly available radiation. If you do a Google search on par and planted tanks there are some who have done testing, and graphs on different lights and hoods. There are others who can explain it much better than I can. When I changed my hood (same bulbs) I had a huge difference in my plants.