Anyone good with plants?

[vince.4395]

Hi everyone!! I have a few questions about my planted tank. I see growth but not like others with similar plants and specs..

20 gallon tall
Lighting: dual t5 lamp (each 14w)
Substrate: Eco complete
Co2: pressurized
Certs. Leaf zone after ever weekly water change, api root tabs every couple of months.
I also have black brush algae however since adding pressurized co2 it has turned dark red..
Thank you for replying.

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[icydeath]

What bulbs do you have? It may be your lighting temperature. Plants love peaks in blue and red.

 

[vince.4395]

T5 dual lamp fixture
(Two bulbs) each bulb is 6700k 24"L 14watt

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[icydeath]

That might be why. I would invest in some plant bulbs only because it is hard to get the correct spectrums and it is a lot more expensive to buy an actinic bulb, a red bulb, and a white one to balance it. Floramax for example is a great bulb made by aqueon that looks really nice and helps give great plant growth.

 

[vince.4395]

Correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't floramax bulbs come in T8?

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[icydeath]

Oh sorry. Misread your fixture size.

Flora Sun by Zoo Med or Flora-Glo by Hagen. Buy two and put them in. If you don't like the lighting (it gives a slight pink/purple tint), return one (make sure they let you return one before you buy it) and run one plant bulb, one 6500k bulb.

 

[vince.4395]

Thank you

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[Coursair]

T5 dual lamp fixture
(Two bulbs) each bulb is 6700k 24"L 14watt

Sent from my XT1030 using Aquarium Advice mobile app

That might be why. I would invest in some plant bulbs only because it is hard to get the correct spectrums and it is a lot more expensive to buy an actinic bulb, a red bulb, and a white one to balance it. Floramax for example is a great bulb made by aqueon that looks really nice and helps give great plant growth.

6,700K is ideal for plants.
6,500K is natural sunlight

I run 6,500K on my tanks, you can use other Kelvin values, but they may look too Red ( low numbers) or too Blue ( high numbers )


Actinics are for Saltwater and useless for plants.

The wattage is low. 28 watts for 20g ??
Unless these are High Output T5s ??
T5NO ( normal output) is prob what OP has.

If your fixture can handle it, I'd up the wattage. 40 watts total minimum.
Or swap to T5HO if fixture will handle it.

Try to find out PAR of the bulbs before you buy them. If you don't know what PAR is, Google it.


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[Coursair]

Wait, you have two threads with same name ???

Ask Mods to merge them. Way too confusing.


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