I need some lighting advice. I have those 2 LED bars that clip on that came with the tank when I bought it. I have no earthly idea how to measure the intensity but I was getting some heavy shadow areas so I went ahead and put my hood from my old 20g High tank on the top of the glass cover for more lighting. It has an t8 18" floramax bulb in the hood. I've positioned it more towards the middle of the tank to add more lighting to some of the plants that were hidden.
Is there a way to measure light intensity from these or have a general idea if I can keep high light plants? I run my lights for 10 hours a day on average. With the co2 system, I'm hoping it gets rid of some of the algae building up on the glass. I've just been dosing liquid co2 off and on which does no good to the tank so a fluval co2 88 system for $20 was a no brainer.
Co2 will help but the system u have for the size of the tank is gonna have u going through canisters weekly if not quicker. As for lighting for high light plants u want something like a finnex planted + or similar. Something that stretches the full length of the tank.
If going into high light u will need to change to EI dry salt dosing. Google EI dosing guide. I 4x dose the phosphate recommended to keep the GSA that forms on the glass away. Works a treat.
In a tank this size your co2 rate will be probs around 5 bps. Make sure you get a drop checker aswell, it wants to be atleast lime green at all spots in the tank.
Also you want good flow in all areas of your tank. Any dead spots/slow movement areas will be a hot spot for algae to form.
A high tech setup is a lot of work. Be sure that your going to have the time to maintain the tank properly. Something as simple as missing your weekly water change by 1 day can result in an algae break out. If algae gets even a little foot hold in the tank it will spread like wild fire untill you find the cause of the problem.
It took me over 6 months to find a balance of lighting/nutrients/co2 in my high tech 30g. I've battled every type of algae along the way. A high tech is certainly a constant hobby, be prepared to be working on it weekly.
I don't want you to be disheartened by this, I just want you to know what to expect going from low to high tech. Make sure you do a lot of research into fert dosing and co2 before you make the jump
Hope I've helped