skkye light fixture

[fishman888888]

I was given (2) 8 watt 14000k skkye clamp light fixtures as a gift

Im guessing these probly wouldnt work for freshwater?

 

[Brian_Nano12g]

Yeah those are too blue for my taste.

 

[fishman888888]

Alright
I thought so. Thank you....

The place theyre from only carries the current satelittle fixture, no finnex models... and i know theyll only give me store credit.... should i get another satellite? I really wanted the finnex planted +

 

[Brian_Nano12g]

Do you have the satellite led(non plus) or the satellite led+ ? What are your goals for the tank? Dimensions?

 

[fishman888888]

Not 100% sure on whether its the + or not..... i know the par rating for mine is 27.... pretty sure anyway.
I have 2 of those fixtures(24" strips)

Tank is 72" x 18" x 21"

Plants:

Vals, amazon sword, red tiger lotus, anubias, java fern, java moss, just got some flame moss scooped up with my bn plecos bonus, ludwigia repens red (that are kinda pale atm), the spiral val species, some larger leaved bacopa species, japonica grass and some staurygene repens

Do you think the light will be okay? Considering all my plants are potted, they seem to be doing pretty good. I just started dosing with excel and seachem nitrogen for the first time this morning.... im kind of anxious to see if there will be any changes.

 

[fishman888888]

If i place two satellites parallel at either end (4 fixtures total)
And placed my anubias/java ferns and mosses in the middle 2 foot section

Would that work? Would there be enough light?Waste of electricity?

Im removing my largest piece of driftwood to my 75, the new home of my ctenos, blue gouramis and black angel...and in the 125 ill have my 11 bosemanis, 7 bn plecos , 2 farlowellas, 1 platinum angel and 1 siamese algae eater...

Ive set up 7 new caves, 3 slate caves, one of the pleco tube caves, one diy i made, and 2 terra cota pots (hidden cause they dont look natural)

One day id like to breed my rainbows and plecos (not together of course) would it be possible in that setup in the 125?

 

[Brian_Nano12g]

The Sat+ has RGB LEDs for color control. The Sat regular only has a single row of white and blue LEDs. Which do you have? With the Skkye lights, what were you going for? Sorry, I'm just having a difficult time imagining those lights with the satellite's (plus or not)?

So ATM, you have 2x 24" strips? So 48" on a 72" long tank? 21" is pretty tall, so you only have low light. And the two strips, being short, must be leaving your tank rather dim on the ends?

You might need something with more punch if you're trying to get into higher intensity lighting. Perhaps more satellite LED+'s? But if you want higher light, maybe t5ho or a BML (build myLED.com) fixture. The Ecoxotic E-Series is high output too.

Good news is your plants are low light tolerant. Vals can melt with excel if they're not gradually introduced to it. So be careful. However, most of the plants will benefit from it.

So aside from excel and nitrogen, that else are you dosing?

 

[fishman888888]

I do have the + model then, i can change the base colours, etc.....

Theyre on the ends...in the middle i have a coralife t5ho 36" fixture...it gets really hot though, im not a big fan of it....

the skkye lights are from 1 1/2 years ago when i first started... i bought them solely for asthetic purposes lol....didnt even have plants hahaha

I dosed 12.5 ml for my initial dose... do you think thats alright?

 

[Brian_Nano12g]

Well if u have them and don't mind the blue hue, then u might be able to use them for a short duration each day. Just to give a blast of extra PAR if you want to increase plant growth. But I have no idea what the PAR output is on the skyye lights. You can either rent/buy a PAR meter to take measurements to know where you are in terms of light intensity, research them, email the company, or trial & error. Like try them out staggered in light duration in conjunction with your other lighting. Make adjustments, observe, then make more adjustments until you hone in on desirable results.

For excel, I would dose as directed. But aside from nitrogen, you should also dose flourish (which also has micros). Perhaps eventually switch over to lite PPS-Pro dosing since your tank is low tech.

 

[fishman888888]

Current lighting arrangement and new ideas for setup and additional fixtures
(Sorry for crude drawing - on cardboard... im outside with no supplies lol)

 

[fishman888888]

My ferts at home:

Seachem: iron, potassium, trace elements, phosphorus, nitrogen

Leafzone

Flourish: excel, root tabs

Do you use equilibrium? Or any buffers?
What ferts do you think i should stick to for my plants

I think i should really get on the pps pro train....

...my temp is at 77.... is that optimal for the plants?

 

[Brian_Nano12g]

Current lighting arrangement and new ideas for setup and additional fixtures
(Sorry for crude drawing - on cardboard... im outside with no supplies lol)

3 satellites inline would be low light and less even coverage.

4 Sat+ would be good and be moderate light.. But maybe get 2x 36" ones so it stretches all the way 72" long.. then add the 2x 24" ones in front or back of those in a line, pushed together in the middle. Keep the lower light plants on the ends, and concentrate plant mass in the middle... or if you want a break in the middle of your aquascape, you can pull the 24" Sat+ to the ends, leaving the gap in the middle to only be lit by the single row of 36" Sat+ (x2 = 72" long).. if that all makes sense.

Yeah, sooner you can switch to pps-pro the better. You'll save a lot of money and dose comprehensively.

Also, Glut dosing instead of excel will also save you a lot of money. Most use Metricide 14, which is about 2x stronger than excel. If u get this, toss the activator bottle away.

 

[Brian_Nano12g]

My ferts at home:

Seachem: iron, potassium, trace elements, phosphorus, nitrogen

Leafzone

Flourish: excel, root tabs

Do you use equilibrium? Or any buffers?
What ferts do you think i should stick to for my plants

I think i should really get on the pps pro train....

...my temp is at 77.... is that optimal for the plants?

Your ferts sound good, but yes, pps-Pro will save you money.

Are you using RO/DI water? I only use a remineralizer in that case. Otherwise, for my tap, I just use dechlor like Prime. Temp is fine.

 

[fishman888888]

I like that idea of the 36" ...would have to stretch the arms to 48", they couldnt be perfectly lined up but close, if you understand what im talking about

And i would set the 24"ers on the ends (parallel to the 36" in behind them closest to filters)

Here was my layout plan...

I want to go with 2-3" fluval stratum (easy to get) capped with 2-3" of some kind of white sand

Would any plants kill off others?

 

[Brian_Nano12g]

Oh the lights are sitting on two center braces? Thought you had a glass top. Oops..

 

[fishman888888]

I do have 3 glass pannel sections .... but right now i have no top on

I moved my satellites together in the middle... so all the light is concentrated on the middle and i moved all my higher light plants to the middle and the moss, ferns and anubias to the ends. It looks pretty good. Curious to see if theres significant changes