plants " Lighting"

[thor]

What would the average lighting hrs be  for plants , Just really talking about general plants like amazon swords , pennywort , Spirals  etc.. Could use the help in trying to establish my darn 140 gal with some plants but have been having trouble, I have 2 co2 systems running for the last 3 weeks but really doesn't seem to be helping much ! Their are lots of bubbles coming out of these things but still having trouble. Can anyone help I have to assume it's the lightting maybe not on long enough what are the average light times ? water chem is good . So ?

[PNA]

I think the usual amount of 'daylight' used is 12 hours.  Most people growing plants use timers to regulate the on/off time.

But I imagine you'd need a lot of light to penetrate through your water.  How deep is your tank?  What kind of bulbs do you use?  How many watts?

[yellowtang]

Hi there.
I don't have a large tank such as your........but I have a 55g heavely planted ........and I run a small co2 canister for my plants........At the start I did not see any difference on my plants,but after a while NOW my plants are out of control......always cutting them once a week.....plant fertilizer do play an important role in their growth and lets not forget.........lights........for a tank large as yours, you need very strong lights and minimum of 10 hours per day.....I run 360 watts in my 55g.
0900-1600 on
1600-1900 off
1900-2230 on.
2230-0900 off
this is the configuration of lights on my tank.........seem to be working quite well.
by the way what king of substrate you have?
you said yourself...........lights will have to be incremented for you to see a difference in plant growth.
cheers.

[gvv]

I run 360 watts in my 55g.

:shock: 6.55 W/G  :shock:
I have jungles with 60W over my 20G...

[BigDaddy]

If you are referring to the Hagen CO2 systems, they won't do much in a 140.  They are designed for a 20 gallon max.

Large tanks don't really fit the "watts per gallon" rule.

If you want to grow low light plants, two 6 foot normal output fluorescent bulbs will do the trick.