plants pearling

[justDIY]

woohoo!

I've actually managed to make my plants pearl today ... the tank is overflowing with oxygen, it's condensing on everything

I took my regular hood offline for my 29gal late morning to take some pics of the tank ... in it's place I used two new 96 watt PC's I had bought for my 30 gal

so, after the photo shoot, I just left them running, and will switch back after lights out..

after dinner I noticed the tank looked a little cloudy ... so I sat down, and noticed bubbles everywhere!! ... almost all the plants were covered with them, as well as the glass and various other things in the tank

hot d*mn I thought ... ~6 wpg is making the plants pearl with diy co2!

 

[80gJoe]

Wow! 6 watts per gallon?
I thought 3 wpg is about normal, or max..
What is the maximum wattage that can be used without algae outbreaks?

 

[d9hp]

Cool! My plants always pearl when I put a new batch of CO2 in...

 

[Doraemon]

I was told that I would need ~5wpg only because I have plants that need intense lighting. And I would think that a deeper tank would alter the formula as well.

 

[justDIY]

well, ending day two of intense lighting ... only noticed a slight increase of greenspot on the glass, everything else isn't showing any algae (nock on wood)

the fish seem a bit dazzled by the light, tetra and angels are acting strangely, but the mollies and platies don't seem to mind at all ... you gotta figure it's really bright for the "top feeders", only inches from 192 watts of light

 

[80gJoe]

glmclell, how is your water temperature doing? Did the lights raise it much?

 

[justDIY]

no raise in temp... the light are actually now that I measure it, about 4 inches above the water

sitting ontop of a wood hood that sits ontop of the tank, plus my water level is down about an 1.5 inches

also, the fan that went with the hood's original lights was still operating, so that probably helped keep things cool

btw, I've discontinued the lights until I can build an enclosure for them, since just having them laying ontop of the hood doesn't fit into my livingroom decor very well, not to mention the huge ballast just balanced on a snack tray next to the tank