Well the only way to tame t5ho fixtures is to either suspend them or use window screen. That's why I'm a little bias and love dimmable LEDs. But you're right, t5ho's are tried and true. Nothing wrong with them for some people.
This site says I need 8 LMAO
24 Freshwater Aquarium Light 36 Freshwater Aquarium Light 48 Freshwater Aquarium Light
I think I have found what I want in the new not yet released Aquatic Life Maruqis lights, Dual T5 HO with timer and I will get 2. I think my cloudy, white scratched up glass tops are doing a pretty good job I have 4 lights on for 8 hours and 2 for 2 and it seems to be doing alright. My Val's already kind of melted but seem to be growing new leaves? With rounded tips vs the older shredded ones.
Pressurized CO2 is actually a lot easier than it appears to be. Once you jump in and learn it, you'll ask yourself why you didn't do it sooner. The plants respond to CO2 like no other. A wise man once told me it's like the holy grail of plant growth.
I measure my pressurized CO2 with a bubble counter. Depending on the tank size, on average it's good to go with 1 to 3 BPS (bubbles per second). I have a regulator with a solenoid valve which basically allows you to hook it up to a mechanical timer. I have the CO2 kick on 2 hours before my lights turn on (also on a timer), then off 1 hour before the lights.
So only CO2 during the day? Looks like I would need a reg, tank, reactor thingy, bubble counter. Is that really the only way? manually counting bubbles? lol Would a 20oz CO2 tank for paintball work? I don't really want to deal with all the disposables. Most of the stuff I see is for small <40g tanks. Also how do you disolve the CO2 and keep it from just going to the top like with an airstone?
I also have a drop checker filled with a pH reagent and 4dkh reference solution. It changes colors to give you a good estimate of how much CO2 is dissolved in the tank. Blue = not enough CO2, green = just right, and yellow = too much. That's how you know it won't harm your fish, just keep it out of the yellow range.
Yeahhhh you lost me lol
Another way to automatically monitor and inject CO2 is through a pH controller. It's not as cheap as the other option. But if you have the money to burn, why not.
Aquatek and Milwaukee make decent entry level regulators. Start there when you're ready.
Do they have like CO2 probes for reefkeepers and stuff? I thought about getting one to control 3 GLO single T5 HO lights, sense 4 is to many and I would need to spread 3 out to cover the whole tank.
So Fourish I only need to dose once a week? I have been looking into the off brand Excel and stuff, as I didn't realize how much you can go through, it says not to over dose but almost everyone on here is. I think I would probably pick up a 2L jug for $30 off amazon for now.
I'm also wondering about all the other stuff, is flourish the best compared to Fluval and APi plant zone and all that stuff, also what about all the other Seachem stuff, Phosphate, Iron, Potassium, Nitrogen? Amonium nitrate... Isn't that like high explosive, I feel like if I threw the bottle at my wall or dropped it it would blow up lol. I don't want to have to trim my plants every 2 days I basically just want them to help the fish but sense this is a fairly new aquarium I'm sure the plants are using up everything there. I was worried about phosphates from over feeding but I'm pretty sure my plants will use up all of that pretty fast.
The other thing I found was Seachem Equilibrium, is this like a more plant friendly salt? Can it be used in place of APi aquarium salt?
I now have the 3 Val's a crappy Petsmart Java fern that fell apart and has hardly and roots and I'm surprised is alive, a long with 2 crappy Crypt's, a nice LFS big Java fern and a nice big potted Crypt.
