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#1
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400 Watt Metal Halide ~too much?
I have a 400 watt metal halide on a 90 gallon corner style aquarium. I have
the choice of a 20K or 10K bulb. Wondering which one is the best for a planted tank with Discus. I have a smaller tank with 10K pc bulbs and that tank is doing fine. I was just wondering if a 400 watt metal halide is too much for a plant tank. Thanks, John |
#2
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400 Watt Metal Halide ~too much?
On Sun, 14 Dec 2003 14:35:40 -0600, "John Little"
wrote: I have a 400 watt metal halide on a 90 gallon corner style aquarium. I have the choice of a 20K or 10K bulb. Wondering which one is the best for a planted tank with Discus. I have a smaller tank with 10K pc bulbs and that tank is doing fine. I was just wondering if a 400 watt metal halide is too much for a plant tank. Thanks, John Is it a pendant? You can always raise and lower a pendant light. I have 350 watts (2- 175 watt pendants) over a 55 g and it's not too much providing you supply enough CO2 and nutirents. |
#3
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400 Watt Metal Halide ~too much?
On Sun, 14 Dec 2003 14:35:40 -0600, "John Little"
wrote: I have a 400 watt metal halide on a 90 gallon corner style aquarium. I have the choice of a 20K or 10K bulb. Wondering which one is the best for a planted tank with Discus. I have a smaller tank with 10K pc bulbs and that tank is doing fine. I was just wondering if a 400 watt metal halide is too much for a plant tank. Thanks, John Is it a pendant? You can always raise and lower a pendant light. I have 350 watts (2- 175 watt pendants) over a 55 g and it's not too much providing you supply enough CO2 and nutirents. |
#4
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400 Watt Metal Halide ~too much?
On Sun, 14 Dec 2003 14:35:40 -0600, "John Little"
wrote: I have a 400 watt metal halide on a 90 gallon corner style aquarium. I have the choice of a 20K or 10K bulb. Wondering which one is the best for a planted tank with Discus. I have a smaller tank with 10K pc bulbs and that tank is doing fine. I was just wondering if a 400 watt metal halide is too much for a plant tank. Thanks, John Is it a pendant? You can always raise and lower a pendant light. I have 350 watts (2- 175 watt pendants) over a 55 g and it's not too much providing you supply enough CO2 and nutirents. |
#5
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400 Watt Metal Halide ~too much?
"John Little" wrote in message
... I have a 400 watt metal halide on a 90 gallon corner style aquarium. I have the choice of a 20K or 10K bulb. Wondering which one is the best for a planted tank with Discus. I have a smaller tank with 10K pc bulbs and that tank is doing fine. I was just wondering if a 400 watt metal halide is too much for a plant tank. That's a bit over one watt per liter. You can do that, but will have to use CO2 injection (and do a lot of weeding, I suspect). Plants will grow very fast at those light levels. I'm concerned about the color temperature though. Most people use 5000K to 5700K for planted tanks. Higher color temperatures encourage algae. (I've never tried using 10K on a planted tank myself -- I'm just relaying advice I've received from a few experienced people.) Cheers, Michi. -- Michi Henning Ph: +61 4 1118-2700 ZeroC, Inc. http://www.zeroc.com |
#6
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400 Watt Metal Halide ~too much?
On Mon, 15 Dec 2003 22:05:09 GMT, "Michi Henning"
wrote: "John Little" wrote in message ... I have a 400 watt metal halide on a 90 gallon corner style aquarium. I have the choice of a 20K or 10K bulb. Wondering which one is the best for a planted tank with Discus. I have a smaller tank with 10K pc bulbs and that tank is doing fine. I was just wondering if a 400 watt metal halide is too much for a plant tank. That's a bit over one watt per liter. You can do that, but will have to use CO2 injection (and do a lot of weeding, I suspect). Plants will grow very fast at those light levels. I'm concerned about the color temperature though. Most people use 5000K to 5700K for planted tanks. Higher color temperatures encourage algae. (I've never tried using 10K on a planted tank myself -- I'm just relaying advice I've received from a few experienced people.) Cheers, Michi. I would have to agree with Michi, don't waste your money on 10k bulbs-they are designed for reef tanks. Corals that have symbiotic algae are in deeper water and only the blue end of the light spectrum can penetrate to those deeper levels hence the actinic and 10k bulbs are marketed for reef tanks. You can even go as low as 4000 4500k for a planted tank if you don't want of spend $60 for bulb. |
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