Need advice: Starting heavily planted 55g

[Nothing]

I have a 37g planted tank right now with Eco Complete substrate that I will be upgrading to a 55g. However, I'm not sure if my water parameters are ideal for some of the smaller matting plants like glossostigma or dwarf baby tears. I just got a KH/GH testing kit and apparently my water is at 8dkh and 12dgh, with a pH of 7.6. Would I be able to sustain a thriving planted tank under these conditions? Light will also be a consideration, I have a non planted 90g with a 2x65 watt light fixture that I may use for the upgrade. Would this be sufficient light for the more demanding plants? I am also looking into CO2 options for the 55g tank, what would your recommendations be for a tank that size? Thank you for any information!

 

[misterc007]

what kind of light is it? My "opinion" would be that 130 watts on a 55 would be enough and you might find it would be to much for your liking depending on what you want to do. I would think that you would need to run CO2 under that much light if its HO but I'm not sure what type of bulb would be that wattage as I'm only really familiar with t5ho. I think the water parameters would be fine as far as the kh/gh goes. If those are correct you would want to run your CO2 down to a ph of 6.8. Check this chart.

CO2/pH/KH table - Aquarium Plants

No CO2 would probably cause algae issue's that you might not like. Some use excell or metracide as a substitute but I don't so I can't comment.

 

[Nothing]

It is a Coralife Model 53008, 120 VAC 60Hz, 130w and that's all I know as I bought the tank and light on Kijiji. I've read that the baby tears, glossostigmas and other carpet plants like that need 3-4 watts per gallon so 130w would be a bit less than that. I'll definitely be wanting CO2 injection as well because I plan on having a high volume of plants. For now I'm dosing with Excel and find my plants are doing well in the 37g. Are there any preassembled CO2 injection kits for a 55g tank or will I have to make my own? And running the CO2 down to pH 6.8 just basically means once I've hit 6.8 pH I've hit the right saturation of CO2 for my parameters?

 

[misterc007]

What kind of bulb or bulbs are in it? as far as watts per gallon go, that really doesn't apply for more current lights. It was meant for t12 or t8 bulbs. High output bulbs or led's or compact flo. are all different. A better measure for those would be by par at the substrate. I just learned this recently I'm no expert but you can read this:

PAR vs Distance, T5, T12, PC - New Chart

as far as regulators go, if your on a budget you could buy an Aquatek or Milwakee with confidence many use them including myself. If you want something more premium check out.

Green Leaf Aquariums

If you want something custom made there are people on thebarrreport.com that will make you whatever you want.

I use a timer and a bubble counter. CO2 on 2hrs before lights on and off 1 hr before lights off. You'll also want a drop checker (budget) or a ph controller. I use a drop checker along with most people.

There are many ways to diffuse the CO2. I'll leave that for you to decide but the more stable the better.

 

[Nothing]

Well the only thing it says on the bulbs is F65/55/40 PL-L Combo 912. Googled it and didn't see anything useful. The bulbs will have to be replaced anyways I don't know how old they are but given the condition the tank came in, it's definitely time for a replacement. So is there going to be a specific kind of bulb that will work with my model or do I have a few different options that I can go out and pick from. The light looks like this. two of the lights are purple, which I just noticed. Is that for reef tanks?

 

[Nothing]

So from what I gather it's a pretty old light and the bulbs are 10000k and I need 6500k. So unless anyone knows if I could get replacement bulbs for that fixture in the right spectrum, I'll need a new fixture. Will a dual T5 HO 6500k fixture be enough with the CO2 for good carpeting with the baby tears and lush growth with any other plants?

 

[Mebbid]

Unless these are vho lights I'm not sure your numbers are correct. T5ho are the standard for planted tanks and they are 1 watt / inch if I'm not mistaken.

I ran a 55g planted tank with 2 t5ho for quite a while and even with one of the better quality fixtures out there it only put me at medium light. I recently doubled that and added pressurized co2 but its too much light and is causing algae problems. A lower end quad t5ho would probably put you at just about the right place for lighting with growing glosso.

I would do a mix of 6500k and 10000k bulbs.

If you want to upgrade your fixture take a look at build my led. They are very high quality led fixtures for planted tanks.

 

[Nothing]

Okay perfect that's what I needed to know. I found a high quality 3x54 watt fixture that's on sale, think if I ran two of the 65k lights and 1 10000k with that and CO2 it would put me where I need to be?

 

[misterc007]

I have a 3x54 watt t5ho fixture on my 50. I have used all 3 bulbs but I currently just run 2. 1 bulb for 2 hours then the other 2 for 4 hrs. If you get the three bulb at least you'll be covered. I Personally couldn't control the algae running 3 at a time. Those suckers are bright.

As far as bulbs I have read that anything between 5000k and 10,000k is ok for a planted tank, between 5000k and 6700k is most favorable.

LED might be a better choice if the price is comparable and in your budget. T5ho bulbs need to be changed around once a year and they consume up to 10 times more power. Take that into consideration. I just bought an LED for a different tank and it cost basically the same as a t5ho.

I cant help with your current fixture. I've never seen one of those and I don't know anything about them. but if you replaced the bulbs you probably could use it . The purple ones won't work with plants.

Good luck!

 

[Mebbid]

Ahh, now that I can see the pic, those are power compact bulbs. They aren't bad but should be medium light level on a tank that size.

 

[Nothing]

Okay so I I were to go with LED what would be a fixture comparable to the T5HOs that would give me high lighting? The 3x54 T5 unit I'm looking at is about $160. And okay so if I want high lighting I would need a new fixture anyway because the power compacts won't be strong enough on a 55g?

 

[Mebbid]

Okay so I I were to go with LED what would be a fixture comparable to the T5HOs that would give me high lighting? The 3x54 T5 unit I'm looking at is about $160. And okay so if I want high lighting I would need a new fixture anyway because the power compacts won't be strong enough on a 55g?

I would go with Dutch Planted 6300K - Build My LED, LLC

Higher starting cost but no bulb replacement and much lower electricity usage.

 

[Rivercats]

One of my 55g tanks has a BML fixture on it. I suggest getting the dimmer which allows you to use the lighting from 10-100%. At 100% the lighting is very bright. I have an 8200K one which they made before going to the different planted tank ones they have now. The only thing to take into consideration is their 6300K light will appear a bit less bright than the 10K planted fixture so you need to read each one and look at the pic's before deciding which one you would want to get.

 

[Nothing]

Hmm no bulb replacement? Like they are basically good forever? (With some gradual dimming I assume?) that's probably a better option than T5s for me then as I have money now because I'm working full time, but I'll be going to school next year so I'll probably want that bulb money for other things. The Dutch style one is the one I'm looking at, but as for the pics on the site I'm not exactly sure what it is I'm looking for. As far as I know most of my plants will have just green, but I'd definitely like to have some variety in there too. Are there any red/different colored plants you'd recommend with one of those lights? Also, would it be more beneficial to run all 6300k lights or does adding one different bulb (like a 10000k) make a big difference? Sorry for all the questions I just wanna make sure I get it right the first time!

 

[misterc007]

If you go with the LED just get the one that is designated for plants or freshwater ie that 6700 range it will be plenty bright don't spend any time worrying about that. LED's have come a long way. BML seems to be a top of the line brand others you might want to look at are Current USA and Finnex they both have a lot of info on the difference in light spectrum with regard to plants on their web sites. Just so you have something to compare the BML to.

 

[Nothing]

Alright awesome thanks for all the help guys. Does anyone have any recommendations for some red or just other colored plants that would really pop?

 

[Mebbid]

I would say limnophila hippuroides (sp?) Would he a great addition to a high light tank.

 

[Rivercats]

If you go with a BML fixture you could pretty much grow any plants you want. Go to the link at the bottom of this post to go through my albums that have many pic's of non-green plants. There are many Rotala's such as Mini Butterfly, Macrandra, Wallichii, Sunset, to name a few, then Ludwigia's such as Atlantis, Red, Glandulosa, and a bunch others, Limnophila hippuroides, Myriophyllum tuberculatum, Cabomba Furcata, and many others that will all add non-green color.

With the BML fixtures either the Dutch 6300K will work well or the 10K Planted tank will work well also. If you go with the 10K Planted be sure to get the one specifically for planted tanks not the blue focus one. Personally I'd also go with the new XB series. The 10K will give a brighter look to the human eye and the 6300K will be a little bit dimmer to the human eye.

 

[Nothing]

Excellent thanks for all the suggestions. Probably go with the 6300k then because I imagine it'll still look plenty bright to the human eye, and probably a bit less for the fishes eyes too then? I have a leopard ctenopoma so he'd probably appreciate it. And how does the Finnex Ray II DS (Dual 7000k) stack up to the Dutch BML? It's $150 cheaper so if that will give me ample light I might go with that. But if the BML will give me a bit of extra oomph I might need then I could go with that. And the Finnex one says the bulbs are built to last like 40,000+ hours, so once that's up can I replace the bulbs or do I need a new unit? It says there's like 384 LEDs so I'm confused about that.

 

[Nothing]

And yeah I would get the XB Dutch. But seeing as it's built for higher outputs I imagine it would in fact be more powerful then the Finnex Ray II DS? Correct me if I'm wrong