light level?

[rekab15]

I've got a 72 gallon Bow front planted tank. The depth of my plants varies from about 22inches to about 18inches. I have mostly low-med light plants, crypts, sword, micro sword, val and some others.
My lighting is:
48 inch Finnex Planted plus LED which runs for 12hrs and is placed across the middle to back of the tank where the plants are around 18inches from the light.
30 inch T5 HO 2 bulb fixture with, 10K 31W, and 67K 31w bulbs. this sits in the front of the tank where the bow is. It come on an hour before the LED and turns off an hour before the LED.

I have some algae but mostly on the wood closer to the lights. I do dose with excel.

Questions: Plants aside...what light category would you consider this low-med-high? With this amount of light would I benefit from CO2 if I got plants that were more dependent on it? is the light proper for the plants I have?

 

[tiger terror]

I'd begin by reducing your photo-period down to 6-8 hrs daily..

Getcha feet wet fish tank people!

 

[tiger terror]

Also the pic does not show...

Getcha feet wet fish tank people!

 

[Fresh2o]

Do you have the brand of the T5 HO fixture? The PAR values might be listed for it at that depth. I have a Finnex FugeRay chart somewhere that lists the PAR data. Given that, I think this would either be low or the low end of medium at best.
They plants you listed should be fine with your setup.


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[jetajockey]

With the pair of fixtures probably medium, maybe even creeping into high light depending on the type.

 

[rekab15]

The T5 fixture is a coralife, Thanks.

 

[Fresh2o]

Jeta is correct. According the the PAR charts found in the link below, at ~20" the Coralife dual T5 HO and Finnex FugeRay will provide 24 PAR each. Hopefully PAR math is as simple as adding the two values (48 PAR). I believe the range for medium light is 30-80 PAR.


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[jetajockey]

I don't think it's that simple, since they don't necessarily overlap completely, but it's a good enough rough estimate for me lol.

I recall someone who did a rough estimate when going from 2 bulb to 4 bulb fixtures that the total par of all 4 would be roughly about 1.5x that of the 2 bulb fixture. No idea how correct or accurate that is though, I think it's just a guess.