Proper lighting?

[s0me]

I have an Aqua Glo 40W for my 77 gallon tank. I just recently purchased some plants; java moss, hornwort, mondo grass and "bacopas"? (as it says on my bill).

I am wondering if the light is sufficient for those plants. Should I consider getting a co2 setup?

Thanks.

[Anubias]

80 watts will just barely do for the Bacopa caroliniana and for the hornwort. The java moss will grow in a closet, and I'm unfamiliar with mondo grass. Some cryptocoryne species will do fine with 80 watts, as will java fern.

[ambushman2j]

*curious* if it simply comes down to wattage, what's the difference between the cheapest sun-glo, aquaglo, flora-glo, power-glo, marine-glo and life-glo?.. they are all the same wattage but clearly your to beleive that each are tailored to different aspects of the hobby what is the element in the bulb that would do this?

[s0me]

I'm gonna take a stab here and say that it would be the difference in the light spectrum?

[squeeker]

Mondo grass is not an aquatic plant.  It will quickly rot if submerged.

[s0me]

Well there was a waste of $10

I wish they (AS) would have told me that before I purchased it.

*sigh*

[BigDaddy]

The different bulbs (i.e. marine glo, aquaglo, etc) have different temperature ratings.  Those ratings are measured in Kelvin (K).  That's one thing that bugs me about Hagen... their website shows the wavelengths but doesn't give the temperatures.  A newbie could easily pick up the right bulb if they simply put the K rating on the packaging....

Lower temp bulbs are described as "warm" lighting because they have yellowish red hues, while higher bulbs are described as "cool" because they have very white or blue hues.

For plants, bare minimum for good general growth is 5000K.  Other popular choices are 6700K and 10000K.

In the hagens... the flora-glo is good for plants.  The wavelength has very little in the red/yellow/orange spectrum, and peaks in three wavelengths 400nm, 450nm and 550nm (which are all in the plant-friendly blue adn green range)

[s0me]

This light seems to have more of a "blueish-white" hue to it as opposed to the described "yellowish red hues". So I wonder if this is infact a higher Kelvin light?

Is there anything that would be labeled on the light itself I wonder? i.e. the K ?

[BigDaddy]

Some manufacturers will put the Kelvin rating on the bulb itself.  If not... and you can't find the wavelength information on the web.. then look for bulbs that are described as "full sun" "cool" "cold" etc...

[artw]

cheapest hah.
I think I have the home depot cool white $2.99 for 4 tubes for my tanks

[Anubias]

Cool white or daylight are as good as any fancy 5000K lamp for plant growth. I use a combination of the two on my tanks. However, most people buy full spectrum lamps to enhance viewing pleasure. Vitalite PowerTwist used to be pretty good, but expensive. If I was to redo my tanks, I'd go with the power compact fluorescent lamp kits from AHSupply. They are available by mailorder on the Web.

Regards,

[adamarchibald]

Hagen does post the Kelvin rating on thier bulbs (atleast with the new packaging).  However i don't believe the kelvin rating to be anything close to accurate.  The AQUA-GLOW bulb you purchased has a Kelvin rating of around 18,000K if my memmory is correct.  A true 18,000K bulb will be quite blue and really only useful in a Reef system.  This is one of the reasons i question the quality of hagen tubes.  Zoo med as an example has accurate Kelvin rating on thier bulbs.  As for why you use one type of kelvin rating and not another.  It is correct the higher the kelvin rating the more the bulb is towards the blue/purple end of the colour specturm (think of a rainbow), the lower the kelvin rating the closer it is to the red and yellow end.  Marine (saltwater) tanks will use higher Kelvin ratings because the low end of the specturm is filtered out very quickly through water, loosing a large part of it in the first few feet.  So by the time it gets to things like corals on the most part only the higher blue and purple light remains.  Plants however are usually very close to the surface of the water and use much more of the full specturm.  I believe (someone correct me if i'm wrong) that most plant growing bulbs are as low as 5,000K.  Traditionally bluish light will cause the plants to grow tall quickly, but not as full.  When growing plants i will tend to use quite low kelvin bulbs with maybe one 'true daylight' bulb (6,500K) to allow good colouring of the fish.  Two final notes.  Replace bulbs often if you are growing plants.  Atleast once every 1.5 years if you are running an electronic ballast, more often if it is a tar ballast.  The more blue the bulb the more often it needs to be changed as the blub will 'colour shift' faster to a yellow than bulbs that are already there.  Never use 'cool white' bulbs from a home hardware store.  They are intended to light a kitchen and not to grow anything photosinthetic, they will simply grow algae well.  That is the end of my banter, please ignore all spelling mistakes, lol.  :lol:

[Anubias]

Researchers normally use cool white lamps over their plants. Plants are very adaptable with respect to wavelength. I have one cool white and one daylight lamp over my 72 gallon tank filled with crypts, rotala, lobelia, bacopa, etc. At one watt per gallon, there are no problems, and the tank actually looks half decent. There is some algae on the myriophyllum tuberculum which is a very hard (high light) plant to grow. Otherwise there is no other algae.

The best article I've seen on the Web is one written by Ivan (or Ivo) Busko. He explains and rates lots of lamps.

Regards,

[adamarchibald]

Got an address?  

[BigDaddy]

http://www.aquabotanic.com/lightcompare.htm

[s0me]

I ended up purchasing a Life Glo 40watt 6700k, the lux is amazing at 465 and makes a HUGE difference in my tank compared to the other light.