New Lights

[Tetra22]

My plants in my 55g stopped growing a while back and started growing some kind of black mold/algae on all the leaves, which is a pain to get off. I finally realized that it was probably my lights, because it had been close to a year since I got the grow bulbs for my standard fixture. I did my research and saw that you should have 2-3 watts per gallon and I had about 1 watt per 2 gallons with new lights. So yesterday I went to Home Depot and got two, 40 watt, T12 bulb, 4 foot shop lights with two bulbs each, and daylight bulbs (6500k, 40w, 2325lumens, cri 84). How are those? I also realized alot about 20,000k+ bulbs that are proper for saltwater, does that mean that 6500k is not right for my fw planted 55 tank? I also have to mount them somehow...I'm designing a hood, any hints on that?

 

[Aquarium1]

6500K is the recommended Kelvin rating for most plants, and should be fine although the watts per gallon rule is a little outdated and doesn't consider a plethora of other factors. I'm not an expert tho, so you might wanna let someone more experienced chime in.

 

[mfdrookie516]

I was planning on having two shop lights on my 55g before i sold it. What i had planned to do is cut the reflector off of one side of each one and rivet or screw the two together so that it almost looked like one fixture (make sense?) and also bend the reflector down on the two remaining sides so it directs the light down more than out... you're not going to have a whole lot of light, but you shouldnt have any problem with low-medium light plants. One thing that really helped me with BBA (which is probably what you have) is running my lights on a split schedule. 4 on, 4 off, 4 on, then off till the next day

 

[Tetra22]

What is BBA? And I was thinking of having a pine 1x8 wood trim around the top, covering the black tank trim all the way around. Then screw the lights into another piece of wood on the top that is hinged. That way I can still get in to feed my fish and whatnot. If that made sense...? We built a stand for this tank in the same manner and it turned out fabulous. Another question...is the evaperation and condensation going to be a problem on exposed floresents without a piece of cover glass? The bottom of the bulbs with this plan is going to be about 4 inches above the water surface.

 

[Aquarium1]

Black Beard Algae BBA algae - Google Search lol

 

[Tetra22]

That is exactly what I have! Thanks for that link AQ1, thats perfect. The fertilizer I have been using is API Leaf Zone Pro series, but I was just looking at the bottle and all it says it has is iron and potassium...sooo what's the point in that? I know those things are good for plants but I guess Nitrate is really what you need. I'm going to go test my nitrates now and see what it's at.

 

[Aquarium1]

Np. Nitrate, potassium and iron are all essential nutrients important for plant growth. Just like vitamins/minerals for us.