Yah! My new Wavepoint Light is in!

[Aquachic4545]

I just got my new lights in! I can't believe how much brighter my tank looks!

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I got it for a pretty decent deal. It was about $240 from a vendor on Amazon. I needed something that would grow plants but that was better than the stuff (the single bulb) that came with my tank.

Moni

 

[Aquachic4545]

Here's the same lighting system from the side.

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Moni

 

[fort384]

Is it T5HO? It looks awfully blue, are you running an actinic in it?

 

[Aquachic4545]

This was the weblink I found that talked all about it: WavePoint™ Technology, Inc. The World’s Most Advanced Aquatic Lighting

My mom thought it seemed pretty darn nice and heavy duty. It was a little snug fitting when I put it on my 75 gallon but I guess that's to keep it from moving. As you can see, I can open my class panels to feed the fish. I can even remove the glass for cleaning without the lights going into my tank.

Oh, they are going to add a moonlight LED attachment in a few months that's an add on!

 

[Aquachic4545]

2 SUN WAVE™ Lamps & 2 SUPERBLUE 460™ Lamps

 

[fort384]

Hmmm, ok, what you have there is not ideal for plants. The actinic bulbs will provide 0 usable light for photosynthesis, so essentially the plants are only seeing this fixture as a 2 bulb t5HO fixture. However, that would still be enough to grow low light plants.

 

[Aquachic4545]

I can always change a light (or both) out later. Right now, I've just been searching for a system I could afford. Unfortunately, everything out there was WAY out of my reach. It came with the two bulbs (white and blue) but I'm sure I could switch one (or both) out. I've heard horror stories about algae though so I'm being cautious first. This is still better than my one bulb.

 

[Aquachic4545]

Question: Would it be better to change out the actinic bulbs for let's say two plant ones with 6700 or is that going to cause a major green algae outbreak? I could probably change them out if necessary. I want to be careful to not cause a huge issue in my tank.

Monica

 

[fort384]

It depends what you want to grow, whether or not you are injecting CO2, what kind of fertilizer you are adding... if you aren't planning on getting heavy into any of that, just running the 2 white bulbs and 2 blue bulbs will be ok. If you are looking at getting high light plants, injecting co2, starting a fertilizer regiment, than you will want to swap 1 or both the actinics out.

 

[Aquachic4545]

I have a Hagen CO2 filter (plan on adding a second ladder in a few months). The kind that uses yeast. I had a HORRIBLE scare with a Hydro compression CO2 system that nearly killed my ghost so now I'm avoiding anything but the yeast systems.

I use SeaChem Flourish and Brightwell Iron for my plants (I avoid Excel version - killed a khuli loach even though I followed instructions carefully).

I'm using CaribSea Floramax Planted Aquarium Substrate under my Peace River gravel Florida Aqua Farms "It's Clear" which I is amazing (my tank is crystal clear) to deal with floating stuff. I've been buying Hikari Carnivore (ironically was for my ghost but ALL the fish like it) which seems to be less messy. I'm being very careful to not overfeed.

I was debating on swapping out one now that I've read your post. This setup comes with two white bulbs that are the SunWave version but I did see a Flora version that 6700. Would it be ok to put in a 6700 version with the two sun versions? I'm still learning about the wavelength thing. I'd read that exchanging both blue bulbs might lead to algae so I'm a little paranoid due to my avoidance of the compression CO2 system.

Also, is there a difference between bulb companies? Are all HO T5's compatible or do I have to buy the bulb made by the same company? I suspect not BUT I'd rather ask someone whose been doing this a lot longer. At this point, I'm like a new mother with a 3 month old whose on a learning curve.

 

[fort384]

You can buy any brand of T5HO bulb. It will be fine to add a 6700K bulb to your current setup. I agree that swapping both actinics would not be a good idea until you get a little more experience and understanding with planted tanks.

Using a DIY yeast generator on a 75 gal tank is not going to be effective at all in getting the CO2 to the level it needs to be at. Those systems are great on tanks smaller than 30 gal, but anything larger is just not practical. You would be lucky to see hardly any rise at all in ppm CO2 using the hagan yeast generator. A single hagan system is good for about a 10 gal tank.

You are dosing flourish comprehensive I am guessing (you said flourish) which is a micro mix. It actually contains some Fe as well, so you may not need to add the other Fe mix.

Keep an eye on your nitrate level - it may become necessary to start dosing N if it is bottoming out under the new light.

I would also suggest you pick up a K supplement as well... either Flourish K or API Leafzone would work. If you get leafzone, you could dose much less of the flourish comprehensive, as it contains trace elements and K.

Excel is a bit different... It is glutaraldehyde, and is a source of C (Carbon) for plants. It is basically used in lieu of a CO2 injection system (which also provides C), but can be used in conjunction from time to time as a prophylaxis for algae.

 

[Aquachic4545]

Well, the LPS told me that I'd be ok if I swapped the two blue lights out so I went ahead and did it. I can always get the liquid CO2 and they said if anything goes wrong, they'll help me out. Basically, if I've got the right plants and lights - shouldn't be too much of a problem. They gave me a mini-lesson so I'm giving it a go. Oh, you were soooo right. The tank looks a lot nicer without that blue tint to it.