Are these lights good for growing plants?

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
See posts with no answers
adammorrill

adammorrill

Aquarium Advice Freak
Joined
Aug 30, 2011
Messages
445
Location
California
That will be a good fixture for growing plants. The bulbs should be just fine.

You could also consider a fishneedit.com fixture. Basically the same fixture (maybe even a little better as it is primarily metal construction) for $50 less.

T5-ho 4ft / 2LAMP Aquarium lighting
 
Good to hear about the lights, and about the fixture you mentioned, I know its cheaper so thats better, but is it that much better in terms of what i can plant? One reason why I am thinking about the getting the fixture from Dr. Foster & Smiths is so i can get some other supplies i need, like fertz, a glass canopy, and this sand bar decoration. Also the shipping would be free
 
I would not say it is better... the reflectors are probably comparable. I can't imagine the shipping being more than $10-15 on it.

What ferts are you buying? DFS has some good products, but I wouldn't buy lighting or ferts from them... too much $$$ :)
 
I know most people like the Seachem products, but I am going to buy some Kents Marine stuff and root tabs. I have used the root tabs and the iron and manganese fertilizer before, but never the pro plant fertilizer. I dont think the fertz are expensive, they are cheaper than Petco, which is my only fish store.
Here is the stuff I am getting
Freshwater Planted Aquarium Supplements: Kent Marine Pro-Plant
Kent Marine Iron & Manganese: Iron supplement useful for caulerpa and all calcareous algaes
Freshwater Aquarium Plant Fertilizer: Aquarium Pharmaceuticals API Root Tabs Plant Fertilizer
 
If i bought ferts from the website you posted which one would i get? I have normal sand that doesnt have any nutrients in it. Also do they have something like root tabs? And with the dry ferts how much would i know to dose? Tat website does look good, and so do their products
 
What plants are you growing? Are you sure you need root tabs? They are often just not necessary. For example, in my old 29 gal tank (Below) I had plain ol' aquarium gravel with no nutrients, and still grew a garden just using dry fert supplementation.
19738-albums313-picture3345.jpg


As far as what to get from aquariumfertilizer.com I would go with:

Mono Potassium Phosphate (KH2PO4)
Potassium Sulfate (K2SO4)
Potassium Nitrate (KNO3)
Plantex CSM+B

This would allow you to dose Nitrogen, Potassium, and Phosphorus, as well as the trace elements (in the plantex csm+b).

They do sell root tabs as well, but depending on your plant selections, you might be ok skipping them.

This article I wrote recently may help you gain a better understanding of fertilizing the planted tank:
Introduction to Fertilizing the Planted Tank - Aquarium Advice
 
I like crypts and swords, and i heard that they are heavy root feeders. With the typs of ferts you posted are they all seperate, or are they in one mix?
 
They are separate. You can dose each individually, or dose a PPS Pro method, which allows you to mix the macros as 1 formula, and the micros for another.

Crypts would do fine without tabs... swords might benefit more from the tabs... but I would try for awhile and see how it goes before I committed to adding root tabs every month or so. Long term, it would just be easier if you can get by without messing with root tabs.
 
Thats good to know about the tabs, and if you wouldnt mind could you post a link to what fertilizer i should buy from that website. Also i read your article, and i get the more light you have, the more ferts you should dose, but is their generally a good amount for a moderately planted 55 gallon tank? Thanks for all your help btw
 
This is the order page: Planted Aquarium Fertilizer - Main, Main, Dry Fertilizers, Dry Fertilizers,

I would pick up 1 of each of the mixes I listed above. That will last you a couple of years.

You may want to take a look at the article I linked as well. It will give you a basic understanding of what you are dosing. It also has some brief explanations of dosing methods, and some links to some easy to build autodosers, which are definitely the way to go on a tank of your size imo.
 
I read your article about ferts and still dont really get it, would i put in a small amount of each fert every day or what? Also my tank probally want be heavily planted at first, I will work my way up to that:) Sorry I didnt see your edit before i posted this.
 
Google PPS Pro Dosing. That is how I would dose a tank of your size. EI would be too much of a pain and waste of ferts.

Basically, with PPS Pro, each fert is dosed every day, in very small amounts. That is why I would recommend building autodosers. That way you only have to fill them every couple of weeks or so. They can be made for $30 or less, depending on what kind of pumps you can find, and what kind of containers you find.

You can mix up fert mixes in gallon jugs of distilled water that you then use to fill your autodosers. What I always do is make a concentrate mix, which has the right amount of fert that I can add 50ml of that into a 1 gallon jug of distilled, and end up with the right concentration for pps pro dosing. This way, I only have to mix up fertilizer jugs about once every 6 months.

EDIT: My common theme seems to be I am lazy :). But it just seems like I start out all gung ho with a new tank, but the maintenance gets old fast, so anything I can do to simplify it, I will pretty much do.
 
What do you think about that measuring jug on their website, would that help, or just be a waste of money. Also I'm only a teenager, so this is a little confusing and i dont think i could make the autodoser or really mix the ferts together unless i could just pour them into like a gallon sized ziploc bag:)
 
Being a teen has nothing to do with it. There are lots of teens on here running very sophisticated tanks. It just takes some time to research and get comfortable with it. It is pretty intimidating at first but if you spend some time reading up on it you will gain an understanding quickly and IMO enjoy the hobby more (and learn some science to boot :) )

The jug is an ok option if you don't have any measuring devices. But you can use baking cups, teaspoons, etc to get close as well.

Or you can nerd out like me and get a graduated cylinder and some beakers and a gram scale. Of course then people might think you are a drug dealer lol. I used to sell premixed aquarium fertilizer solutions though a few years ago so I needed the more sophisticated equipment. That jug you mentioned or some baking utensils will work just fine. As much as it often seems like it, this doesn't have to be an exact science. As you start to get familiar with your tank and nutrient deficiencies you can almost dose just based on what you are observing in your tank. Careful measurement is the way to start though.
 
So i can probally use just a measuring cup, like the picture of the fith cup?
measuring cup - Google Search
And I like dosing small amounts every day, and i dont think there was an approximate ammount mentioned in your article, so is their a good number to start at and then work your way from there?
 
Well, yes and no. That cup would be good for mixing up a concentrated mix. But the daily dose will be much, much smaller.

If you would like, you can pm me your email address and I will send you a PPS Pro dosing calculator excel spreadsheet.

You will want to google PPS Pro as well and do some reading. Get comfortable with the concept. I can't really recommend a number off hand - it will be a different amount for each compound.
 
If i find a good amount of how much ferts to dose a day, would each one be the same ammount or would i put in some more than another. And could i put the dry ferts directly into the tank?
 
You can dose directly into the tank... but we are talking about very tiny amounts, especially the mono potassium phosphate. It is much easier to just take a jug of distilled water from walgreens or the grocery store, and mix up a larger amount, and then measure out of that each day for the dose.

And yes, each requires a different dose. For example, the daily dose of KH2PO4 will be about 20-30 times smaller than the daily dose of K2SO4. This is due to the targets you are trying to reach. KH2PO4 does Phosphate (to get phosphorus for your plants), and the target for that is somewhere around 0.5-1ppm in the water column. The target for K2SO4 (which doses potassium for your plants) is somewhere around 30ppm, so it takes a heck of a lot more of that to reach the target.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

S
How much should I ask for these plants?
Replies
1
Views
491
Joe_D
J
A
Aquarium light scaring the fish
Replies
2
Views
498
Aron90
A
B
New plants propagating but not growing
Replies
3
Views
645
Colin_T
C
M
Fish are fine, but my plants are dying
Replies
3
Views
482
Colin_T
C
J
Room lights stressing fish??
Replies
3
Views
1K
syhko
S

Latest posts

Back
Top Bottom