Is a 85Watt Fluoresceht light too much for a 20 gallon planted tank?

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jcsaad

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Mar 15, 2010
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Plants in tank: Water wisteria, anacharis, Alternanthera reineckii, anubias. Currently the tank has a 15 watt fluorescent bulb which is extremely low ligh and so the plants arent growing at all.
Will the new light show me increased growth or will I have an algae bloom? (i add liquid fertilizer each week but no co2 injection)
 
If I had the power I'd put this in the planted tanks section where you'd probably get a lot more help, but in the mean time check it out and welcome to AA
 
Without CO2 injection there is no way you won't have a tank full of algae. You *might* be able to mitigate with Flourish Excel (a carbon suppliment) but it is not compatible with certain plants (anacharis), and is probably not enough for such high light.
 
ill definitely check out that section thank u:) ...how strong should the light be??
 
Pretty much anything over 40w is going to likely require CO2. As I said you might get away with a liquid carbon suppliment but most people use them under lower-light conditions.
 
you might want to consider an actinic bulb or bulbs to replace some of the daylight bulbs to knock the wattage down a bit... what kind of fixture is this?
 
you might want to consider an actinic bulb or bulbs to replace some of the daylight bulbs to knock the wattage down a bit... what kind of fixture is this?

Hadn't thought of that. That would be the perfect thing to do if possible. If you could get a 50/50 (actinic/daylight) you'd drop your wattage down to a usabe range without the need for CO2. I'm also a bit interested to hear the type of light because that wattage is not a normal one I'm used to seeing posted. 65w is the norm (talking compact flourescent, CF) so 85w is possibly a non-traditional fixture. If non-traditional OP please post how far off of the water surface the light is hanging (that makes a HUGE difference in actual light that reaches the plants).
 
Its a regular compact fluorescent light its not made specifically for tanks..it will hang from the top of the tank since I dont have a lid...whats actinic light? i googled it and it gave me a bunch of results for reef tanks :\
 
actinic bulbs provide a blue light that plants do not use, which make a very nice color in the tank but cut the wattage of the light by replacing the usable light with unusable light.. if its pc lighting, then you can get a 50/50 bulb that is half daylight (6500-10,000k) and half actinic (420-460nm) basically cutting your usable wattage in half
 
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