Advice on lighting (Solarmax HO T5) - new light making plants worse?

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JPA

Aquarium Advice Regular
Joined
Dec 15, 2009
Messages
91
Location
Massachusetts
A few weeks ago I upgraded the lighting in my 40 gallon tank (discus and small schools), which I've had for over a year, from the light that came with the tank (not sure what it is, but I know it wasn't good) to a Solarmax H.O. T5 39Wx2. I followed the advice of the guy at my lfs and replaced the bulbs that came with the light (one 10,000k bulb and one Actinic-03 bulb) with two 6700k daylight bulbs.

While the light is clearly brighter, one of my plants (Amazon Swords) has actually started to show some problems since upgrading (leaves falling, black leaves, turning brown), and several micro-sword plants I bought a couple weeks ago are dying (turning brown, etc.).

In buying the Solarmax I basically blindly followed the advice of the guy at my lfs. So I have a few questions I was hoping someone could help me out with:

1. Is this light any good?
2. Did it make sense to change the 10,000k and Actinic bulbs for the 6,700k bulbs?
3. Could this lighting actually be hurting my plants?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
1- Never heard of that brand, but doesn't mean it's no good. If nobody here has any experience with them, I'm sure you can find reviews on google.

2- yes. Plants cannot use light from an actinic bulb. The 10,000k would have been fine, but no biggie. Plants use light in the 6500k-10,000k spectrum, so 6700k is perfect.

3- I doubt it. Did you get these plants from a tank or a tube? Amazon swords are often grown emersed and will look bad for a little while after submerging them until they adjust.
 
+1

It does sound like your plants are adjusting. I've gotten amazon swords out of the tubes before and they died back a lot before they took off and grew out the top of the tank.
 
I just started out in the planted tank direction -- but it sounds like your plants may be going through a bit of shock from the light change. From what I've heard and read they should bounce back.
 
+1

It does sound like your plants are adjusting. I've gotten amazon swords out of the tubes before and they died back a lot before they took off and grew out the top of the tank.

Just to clarify, I've had the Amazon swords in my tank for about a year. They haven't grown a lot, I assume because my lighting was bad, but they always looked decently healthy.

I did just buy the micro-swords. When I bought them they were fully submerged in a tank in my lfs, but the person there informed me that they were grown hydroponically (I think she said hydroponically).

Thanks for the advice and information everyone, it is much appreciated.
 
78 watts of HO is a big upgrade for 40 gals- are you dosing excel or any other ferts? Your swords might benefit from root tabs if there aren't enough nutrients to go with the increased light. They also could be having issues with acclimating but I would expect them to bounce back.
I have a similar fixture over my 38 gal and ended up having to temporarily take a bulb out- gradually working back up to full speed.
How long is your photoperiod?
 
78 watts of HO is a big upgrade for 40 gals- are you dosing excel or any other ferts? Your swords might benefit from root tabs if there aren't enough nutrients to go with the increased light. They also could be having issues with acclimating but I would expect them to bounce back.
I have a similar fixture over my 38 gal and ended up having to temporarily take a bulb out- gradually working back up to full speed.
How long is your photoperiod?

My new light actually has separate switches for each bulb. Maybe I will only turn one on for a few weeks and see what that does.

I am clearly not an expert when it comes to plants, because I just had to google "photoperiod" to figure out what you were talking about. I leave my lights on most of the day - usually from 8:30 am until around 10 pm. Could this be hurting the plants? I was thinking of buying a timer, but my lights come with 6 blue-leds that make the tank look great at night.

I do use root tabs.

Thanks!
 
I could be wrong so take this with a grain of salt -- being freshwater any fish can see that blue light and not have a "nighttime".
 
I could be wrong so take this with a grain of salt -- being freshwater any fish can see that blue light and not have a "nighttime".

The blue light is very dark, so I don't think it would stop the fish from having a nighttime anymore than moonlight would stop fish from having a nighttime in their natural habitat. It's a good point though - I've seen pictures of other tanks with nighttime lights that are very bright, and I can't imagine the fish are big fans.
 
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