the key to that is that it is 50/50 bulb which can be used with success. It
contains the right spectrum of light with some in the red spectrum and a lot
in the blue spectrum. You can get away with less light if it is in the
right spectrum. Let me rephrase that: the reason some people say that you
can use any type of flourscent bulb and acheive growth as long as you have a
lot of wattage is because Most bulbs have at least some light in all of the
wavelengths. If you put enough bulbs over the top of the tank that will
eventually give you the amount of light that you need for each spectrum.
However it is conceivable that 1 bulb with spikes in the proper wavelengths
could equal the effectiveness of multiple bulbs with spikes weak in either
red or blue. Unless you put some thought into selecting your bulbs you will
be wasting your money and valuable space on top of your tank. I could now
go into reflectors but that is a whole other discussion. I know this to be
true

to go back to my original statement: the bulbs that come stock with 90% of
flourescent light strips are made by penn plax. These bulbs SUCK for plant
growth as they EXTREMELY weak in the red spectrum. you would need at least
a couple of these to equal one chroma 50 in red light. Think about it....
the science checks out and I know this from personal experience with a 10
gallon in which I couldn't grow a damn thing with when I had the 15watt
stock penn plax bulb, however I went to walmart dropped five bucks and all
the sudden I could grow all kinds of things. Don't get me wrong wattage
does matter! but for a guy with a ten gallon with a 15 watt strip over it I
just thought it was a cheap upgrade I mean cmon 10 gallons? Being a newbie
I don't think he's going to run out a get 36 watt PC flour kit ya know?
Ben Conaway
Fisheries Biologist
State University of New York at Brockport

p.s. plants aren't adaptable at all. Ask my discus who live at 79 degrees
because the plants melt right away when I crank it up.

A lot of people use the Custom Sealife SmartLites for planted tanks, which
are
50% actinic, and 50% 10,000K daylight.

Now, I'm not recommending actinics, and I don't deny that color of the
bulb can
have some effect on plant growth. But plants are very adaptable. They
may
prefer some wavelengths over others, but they'll use whatever you give
them --
as long as the wattage is adequate.


Leigh

http://www.fortunecity.com/lavender/halloween/881/

sorry got a little carried away there.... this poor guy was just a newbie
with a two sentence question look at what we've done to him... I need to get
a life.
Ben
"Ben" wrote in message
...
the key to that is that it is 50/50 bulb which can be used with success.
It
contains the right spectrum of light with some in the red spectrum and a
lot
in the blue spectrum. You can get away with less light if it is in the
right spectrum. Let me rephrase that: the reason some people say that
you
can use any type of flourscent bulb and acheive growth as long as you have
a
lot of wattage is because Most bulbs have at least some light in all of
the
wavelengths. If you put enough bulbs over the top of the tank that will
eventually give you the amount of light that you need for each spectrum.
However it is conceivable that 1 bulb with spikes in the proper
wavelengths
could equal the effectiveness of multiple bulbs with spikes weak in either
red or blue. Unless you put some thought into selecting your bulbs you
will
be wasting your money and valuable space on top of your tank. I could now
go into reflectors but that is a whole other discussion. I know this to
be
true

to go back to my original statement: the bulbs that come stock with 90% of
flourescent light strips are made by penn plax. These bulbs SUCK for
plant
growth as they EXTREMELY weak in the red spectrum. you would need at
least
a couple of these to equal one chroma 50 in red light. Think about it....
the science checks out and I know this from personal experience with a 10
gallon in which I couldn't grow a damn thing with when I had the 15watt
stock penn plax bulb, however I went to walmart dropped five bucks and all
the sudden I could grow all kinds of things. Don't get me wrong wattage
does matter! but for a guy with a ten gallon with a 15 watt strip over it
I
just thought it was a cheap upgrade I mean cmon 10 gallons? Being a
newbie
I don't think he's going to run out a get 36 watt PC flour kit ya know?
Ben Conaway
Fisheries Biologist
State University of New York at Brockport

p.s. plants aren't adaptable at all. Ask my discus who live at 79 degrees
because the plants melt right away when I crank it up.

A lot of people use the Custom Sealife SmartLites for planted tanks,
which
are
50% actinic, and 50% 10,000K daylight.

Now, I'm not recommending actinics, and I don't deny that color of the
bulb can
have some effect on plant growth. But plants are very adaptable. They
may
prefer some wavelengths over others, but they'll use whatever you give
them --
as long as the wattage is adequate.


Leigh

http://www.fortunecity.com/lavender/halloween/881/

Ben wrote:

do yourself a favor and go to wal mart or home depot and buy yourself a
sunshine bulb (not the exact name) the packaging is bright orange and the
bulb should say "chroma 50". That will be the bast improvement you can make
for the money. without good lighting co2 is absolutely useless. Next, and

It looks like the orange boxed sunshine bulbs have been repackaged. Sylvania
now has a new packaging lineup 5 or so bulbs in similar style but different
color packages. The sunshine bulbs seem to be the ones labeled as 'daylight'
and are marked (as all of them are, now) as a 5100k bulb.

As for the CO2 without good lighting, my limited experience would disagree with
you. CO2 is a good addition at any light level. I've seen studies where
increased CO2 is only marginally less productive than increasing lighting. It
is when the two are combined that one can expect very large improvement in plant
growth.

--

Scott Lewis

In article ,
Scott Lewis wrote:
Ben wrote:

do yourself a favor and go to wal mart or home depot and buy yourself a
sunshine bulb (not the exact name) the packaging is bright orange and the
bulb should say "chroma 50". That will be the bast improvement you can make
for the money. without good lighting co2 is absolutely useless. Next, and

It looks like the orange boxed sunshine bulbs have been repackaged. Sylvania
now has a new packaging lineup 5 or so bulbs in similar style but different
color packages. The sunshine bulbs seem to be the ones labeled as 'daylight'
and are marked (as all of them are, now) as a 5100k bulb.

Chroma 40 used to be available everywhere here. Now all I can
find is Philips Colortone 50 which is the same thing (slightly
better on paper actually). I don't remember the Osram/Sylvania
equivalent.

I used to use Chroma 75 (7500K) when they and C50 were unavaliable
from normal retail outlets and had to be purchased from a lighting
distributor; the extra blue in the C75 seemed to make red plants redder.

As for the CO2 without good lighting, my limited experience would disagree with
you. CO2 is a good addition at any light level. I've seen studies where
increased CO2 is only marginally less productive than increasing lighting. It
is when the two are combined that one can expect very large improvement in plant
growth.

Agreed.

--
Richard Sexton | Mercedes Parts: http://parts.mbz.org
http://www.mbz.org Mailing lists: http://lists.mbz.org
W108, W126 Mercedes Classifieds: http://ads.mbz.org
** new -- Watch list: http://watches.list.mbz.org

i have sera floredepot in with gravel to about 5cm in heigth
planted amazon sword in and left the java fern tied on a rock with still
some rock wall.
qestion one is that enoug height?
2. is this the correct way of planting the java fern and the amazon sword?
3. Sometimes come bubles from the substrate, what is itt and must i left it
like that ?
4 . water cloudness , is it becuase of the new gravel the bottom gravel of
sera floredepot ?
5. How long is it going to take to estabished the java fern on the rock?
6. Is the sera floredepot enough for now for 4-6 weeks for the java fern or
must i dose it with plant fertilizer.
7. Can you plant the leaves of amazon sword and grow a new plant from it or
how does new plants work with amazon sword and the java fern(how do you get
new plants and how long)
8. I read amazon need alot of fertilizer , the recomend dosing or a little
more on the package of fertilizer, do i need do fertilize it in the first
4 -6 weeks or is the gravel enough.
9. how much iron is enough in a tank or too much?
10. is one buble every 15-60 seconds enough for the 10 gallon , i use it in
the intake of a plasic corner filter is it enough for filtration for the
tank and the difuse of co2?
thx
wynand
"Ben" wrote in message
...
sorry got a little carried away there.... this poor guy was just a newbie
with a two sentence question look at what we've done to him... I need to
get
a life.
Ben
"Ben" wrote in message
...
the key to that is that it is 50/50 bulb which can be used with success.
It
contains the right spectrum of light with some in the red spectrum and a
lot
in the blue spectrum. You can get away with less light if it is in the
right spectrum. Let me rephrase that: the reason some people say that
you
can use any type of flourscent bulb and acheive growth as long as you
have
a
lot of wattage is because Most bulbs have at least some light in all of
the
wavelengths. If you put enough bulbs over the top of the tank that will
eventually give you the amount of light that you need for each spectrum.
However it is conceivable that 1 bulb with spikes in the proper
wavelengths
could equal the effectiveness of multiple bulbs with spikes weak in
either
red or blue. Unless you put some thought into selecting your bulbs you
will
be wasting your money and valuable space on top of your tank. I could
now
go into reflectors but that is a whole other discussion. I know this to
be
true

to go back to my original statement: the bulbs that come stock with 90%
of
flourescent light strips are made by penn plax. These bulbs SUCK for
plant
growth as they EXTREMELY weak in the red spectrum. you would need at
least
a couple of these to equal one chroma 50 in red light. Think about
it....
the science checks out and I know this from personal experience with a
10
gallon in which I couldn't grow a damn thing with when I had the 15watt
stock penn plax bulb, however I went to walmart dropped five bucks and
all
the sudden I could grow all kinds of things. Don't get me wrong wattage
does matter! but for a guy with a ten gallon with a 15 watt strip over
it
I
just thought it was a cheap upgrade I mean cmon 10 gallons? Being a
newbie
I don't think he's going to run out a get 36 watt PC flour kit ya know?
Ben Conaway
Fisheries Biologist
State University of New York at Brockport

p.s. plants aren't adaptable at all. Ask my discus who live at 79
degrees
because the plants melt right away when I crank it up.

A lot of people use the Custom Sealife SmartLites for planted tanks,
which
are
50% actinic, and 50% 10,000K daylight.

Now, I'm not recommending actinics, and I don't deny that color of the
bulb can
have some effect on plant growth. But plants are very adaptable.
They
may
prefer some wavelengths over others, but they'll use whatever you give
them --
as long as the wattage is adequate.


Leigh

http://www.fortunecity.com/lavender/halloween/881/