Printerhands
Aquarium Advice Activist
- Joined
- Apr 3, 2013
- Messages
- 102
So I'm looking into getting a T5 light for my 29 gal planted tank. Any suggestions on what's good and worth the money?
I know that aquaticlife, Hagen glo, and catalina make T5HO fixtures with excellent quality reflectors... Well that's what I've read anyways. What type of plants are you planning to grow? You thinking of going high tech with co2 injection?
I have an aquatic life 36" and I'm very happy with it. With that said, the reflectors are not individual reflectors! It is a single reflector, molded to the 4 bulbs. And the fixture is faily expensive.. Mine was $350.
I cannot speak for the quality of Odyssea but people have been getting good results with those too. But seems to be a toss up. So if you are willing to take the gamble, An odyssea fixture is basically an aquatic life knock off from china (even with timer).
Well I have a few low light plants and some high light plants like a red rotala, water wistera, red tiger lotus and dwarf grass. And my flora max isn't cutting it. I am do flourish ferts along with root tabs and do have a Hagen CO2 canister deal going. I mean its not to hi-tech but I feel it gets the job done.
I use floramax and it does fine. Its essentially eco complete and it has a great track record. Its no ADA aqua soil, but certainly gets the job done. The problem might be more your lighting (hence this thread), ferts, and inadequate co2 throughput. That Hagen co2 is a yeast/sugar co2 generator right? If you don't upgrade to pressurized co2 just yet, you should supplement that co2 system you're using with a liquid carbon like Excel or Glut to compensate. Are you monitoring co2 saturation/dissolution with a drop checker?
Maybe consider going with dry ferts like GLA's PPS-Pro package to get a more comprehensive ferts regimen going.