TigerBarbs
Aquarium Advice Addict
On liveaquaria it says that almost all the plants need 2 watts per gallon of light! Is this true? Because i have a 29 gallon and its not easy to find a 48 watt bulb thats only 24" long.
TigerBarbs said:Well... I have a senegal bichir which is a low light fish but want live plants so im kinda stuck right?
WPG in reference to anything but plain-jane fluorescent lights is pretty pointless.
Coursair said:It helps if your light is the right spectrum. Near 6500K is good. Actinic is NOT best for freshwater, that is for Salt Water tanks.
WPG in reference to anything but plain-jane fluorescent lights is pretty pointless.
That being said- many plants do just fine with less than that old formula. Add to the mix, T5 and T5-HO which provide mire usable light per watt and things get tricky.
1 WPG of T5HO is considerably more usable light output per watt.
When I go serious about plants in my 29g, I picked up a twin bulb T5 HO fixture. With both bulbs on (using a timer), plants took off, but so did the Black Beard/Brush Algae and Staghorn algae. I had to get really aggressive with Flourish excel and then added DIY CO2 to deal with it. I cut back to one bulb and plants slowed down a bit (though still healthy growth), and the BBA/Staghorn issue also went away).
The more light, the more nutrients your plants will need- from the macros (NPK) to micro nutrients and CO2...