Is it just me or are these things essentially useless?

http://aquaria.net/articles/lighting/screwin/


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"Richard Sexton" wrote in message
...
Is it just me or are these things essentially useless?

http://aquaria.net/articles/lighting/screwin/

Hi Richard,

Well I started off with a cube 10 gal tank, with 1 X 9W, then a little
later, 2 X 15W 6500K "cheapie" (made in Asia) edison screw CF bulbs over the
tank with dull metal reflectors.

I had Asian Ambula, Pennywort, Tiger Corkscrew Val., Florida Banana Lily and
Water Wisteria (Hygrophilia difformis). They did okay with 1 X 9W, but just
okay. They weren't really growing, but they weren't dying either. When I
added 2 X 15W the Asian Ambula had to be cut back after about 2 weeks, as it
started to grow out of the top of the tank. The Wisteria and Pennywort also
shot up and grew, in total, about 3 inches (~ 7 cm) each, although the
leaves were smaller than when I got them - about one month for this growth
in this CF lighted tank.

The Val. just melted and I lost one of three. I had substrate issues, to be
honest, and I was worried about algae outbreaks because the NO CFs had a
fair bit of green in the visible spectrum, even though they looked
blue/white.

It proved a couple of things to me, which have stood me in good stead for my
new 220L/50Gal :-

Substrate is important and so is nutrition (macro nutrients). I was lucky in
the 10 GAL in that the substrate was full of nutrients by accident, as it
was given to me by someone who didn't take care of their gravel properly, so
it had a lot of "Stuff" in it - eventually I worked out my high Nitrate
levels and low pH were the result of OTS because of this gravel.

This translated into the new tank as macro fertilisation in the substrate
via things called "Dinosaur Dung", which are phosphate and nitrate free
fertilizer balls available here in Oz, and weekly liquid fertilisation of
the water column with a micro-nutrient liquid fertilizer.

The substrate particle size and condition are really important - I notice
your substrate in the pictures looks a bit fine. My gravel in the new tank
is two layers - the lower one with the balls in it is 1.0-2.5mm grains and
the upper one which is thinner, is black and has a particle size of 3 - 5mm.
Some of the more sensitve "rooty" plants are in plastic pots with clay kitty
litter and DD balls, with the top layer gravel on top and others are just
stuck in the tank gravel - there is no difference I can detect in root
formation or health in using either planting method btw.

The main thing I am trying to say is that substrate health, compostion and
macro fertilisation are probably more important than the light spectrum
itself.

Lights: I am now switched over to 2 X 36W 4 foot T8 tubes - One Philips
Aquarelle and one Chinese "plant spectrum" tube which was on sale at LFS#1.
The Philips is pink (10,000K) and the plant spectrum is 5700K and blue. I am
guessing the intensity is far greater from these T8 tubes, but maybe not in
comparison to the 10gal tank because this tank is deeper than the cube.

My point here about lights is that whilst spectrum and CRI are important to
plants, it's actually the intensity and period which plants respond to.

I also now have 15-20ppm CO2 happening, stable pH at 6.8 and sufficient KH
(5dKH/89.5ppm) and these tube lights are on 12 hours per day on a timer.

I have had both a diatom and green velvet algae outbreak recently, but the
diatom thing was NTS and has now gone and the green was from two things:
over feeding the fish and over fertilising. That is also now gone, as I've
cut back on the fertiliser and food and once all the damage to plants and
diatom infested leaves were pruned off, I now have regular day-time pearling
and robust fast growth on all plants.

I noticed also the surviving Val. had shot off runners and the leaves don't
melt any more. The Banana Lilies went absolutely beserk and covered the
water surface with pads, so I've cut them all off, and they are both
shooting up at unprecendented rates yet again - I swear you can see these
things growing - they go about and inch a day atm.

The Asian Ambula got really badly affected by the diatoms, and I just cut it
back really hard, about 2.5 cm above the substrate and in three-four weeks,
it's now about 1 cm from the water surface - so that's grown 46cm (1.25
feet) in ~28 days, which is astounding - what's more it's new growth is
nicely spaced between the nodes (sufficient light) and it's a really nice
healthy green. I have 4 X SAE's and two lyer-tail swords which "suck" any
algae off the leaves and a large Mystery Snail which has a go too.

So, sorry for the long story, but I'd suggest that you look at your
substrate, think about CO2, fertilisation and have think about light
intensity and period rather than suspecting a particular light type. A CF
IMO, isn't as efficient as a straight tube and that's just the shape and
dependent on application

I can't say the CF lights were anything but educational in my experience.
One thing - I never had an algae infestation with them, or any sort of light
related problem, which I did expect because of the predominant green in
their spectrum.

There is always the option of silk plants if all this aquatic gardening is
too much It's crossed my mind at times, but you can't beat pearling real
plants in my experience and I don't know about you but I get a sense of
accomplishment when my aquarium plants are vibrant and healthy.

I will say one thing - it appears to be harder than terrestrial gardening in
my experience

All the best,

Oz

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My Aquatic web Blog is at http://members.optusnet.com.au/ivan.smith

I don't think they're useless - Just not quite as good as tube lights.
I was very frustrated with the 20 watt tube that came with my 20 gallon
long aquarium, it provided just enough light to see the fish and make
any plant I added to the tank die *very* slowly, but still die.

So in an effort to get more light into the aquarium I pulled the tube
and ballast out of the light hood on my tank and cut out a piece of
alluminum sheeting for a reflector plate and mounted it inside the
hood. Then I went to Home Depot and got two screw in light sockets and
a pair of brackets to hold them. Mounted them on the inside of the hood
so they would be equally spaced over the aquarium and screwed in two
25watt screw in flourescents.

So theoretically the tank has 2.5 watts per gallon in it now. From what
I've seen though it's acting more like it has between 1.5 and 2. Still,
for a total cost of less than $30 (bulbs included) it was a heck of a
lot better than buying a new hood from the LFS. I can now keep all low
light plants and many medium light plants in an aquarium that wouldn't
support any plant life at all before the modification.

-Daniel

The substrate particle size and condition are really important - I notice
your substrate in the pictures looks a bit fine. My gravel in the new tank
is two layers - the lower one with the balls in it is 1.0-2.5mm grains and
the upper one which is thinner, is black and has a particle size of 3 - 5mm.
Some of the more sensitve "rooty" plants are in plastic pots with clay kitty
litter and DD balls, with the top layer gravel on top and others are just
stuck in the tank gravel - there is no difference I can detect in root
formation or health in using either planting method btw.

The main thing I am trying to say is that substrate health, compostion and
macro fertilisation are probably more important than the light spectrum
itself.

I've had plants do just great with no substrate and in the tank you're
seing in my pictures the plants went crazy after I replaced the screwins
with two 40W CF lights.

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In article .com,
dfreas wrote:
I don't think they're useless - Just not quite as good as tube lights.
I was very frustrated with the 20 watt tube that came with my 20 gallon
long aquarium, it provided just enough light to see the fish and make
any plant I added to the tank die *very* slowly, but still die.

So in an effort to get more light into the aquarium I pulled the tube
and ballast out of the light hood on my tank and cut out a piece of
alluminum sheeting for a reflector plate and mounted it inside the
hood. Then I went to Home Depot and got two screw in light sockets and
a pair of brackets to hold them. Mounted them on the inside of the hood
so they would be equally spaced over the aquarium and screwed in two
25watt screw in flourescents.

So theoretically the tank has 2.5 watts per gallon in it now. From what
I've seen though it's acting more like it has between 1.5 and 2. Still,
for a total cost of less than $30 (bulbs included) it was a heck of a
lot better than buying a new hood from the LFS. I can now keep all low
light plants and many medium light plants in an aquarium that wouldn't
support any plant life at all before the modification.

That's exactly what I did. 5 years of 20W fluorescent, 3 years of screwins
in the same tank. You saw the results with every other thing being the
same in the pictures I posted.

http://aquaria.net/articles/lighting/screwin/

I should have used two 20W tubes in retrospect. But, now it has twin 40W cf
tubes and has exploded in plant growth.



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I've a 10 gallon heavily-planted aqua-terrarium with 2 9-watt screw-in
C.F. 6500K bulbs and a heavily-planted 15 gal. cube tank with one
9-watt 6500K and one 20-watt 6500K of like kind and they've both been
running with these for well over half a year and they're doing
wonderfully... never had such dense plant growth. I'd recommend them
personally. Sorry you had such bad luck with them.

I think one of the problems you may have run into is not that the
lights are insufficient, but rather that they weren't lighting your
tank evenly. Even in my 20g long there is a slightly less bright spot
in the middle of the tank and at the corners - for the most part this
doesn't matter since I keep an amazon tank with mostly dim-light plants
in it anyway. But if you had the same setup as I do in a 30g long
aquarium you probably had some spots that were significantly dimmer
than directly under the bulbs. You might have done better to get
double sided sockets and put four screw in bulbs into the hood rather
than just two to get a more even light - but at that point it may be
better to just go with the standard tubes - which I suppose is the
conclusion you already came to.

I still think the screw in flourescents have their place though. Are
they "just as good" as a $100 hood with a high output bulb? Heck no.
But they can be the difference between "I can't afford good lighting so
I can't have real plants" and "Hey! My aquarium looks great!" I know
mine does, and I recommend the modification I made to anyone with
limited funds and the desire to recreate a more natural environment. My
tank now happily supports two Anubias barteri (well three actually -
one is in the process of splitting), three bunches of Java fern, one
Ruffle sword, two Red swords, and a nicely spreading patch of Water
clover (which I absolutely love).

I'd say that's worth a $30 mod that took less than an hour to do.

-Daniel

than just two to get a more even light - but at that point it may be
better to just go with the standard tubes - which I suppose is the
conclusion you already came to.

Bingo.

I still think the screw in flourescents have their place though. Are
they "just as good" as a $100 hood with a high output bulb? Heck no.

$100 hood? I found $10 twin 40W CF fixtures in a recycling place.

For $100 I'd expect [censored by Googles family filter].


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In article .com,
Dances_With_Ferrets wrote:
I've a 10 gallon heavily-planted aqua-terrarium with 2 9-watt screw-in
C.F. 6500K bulbs and a heavily-planted 15 gal. cube tank with one
9-watt 6500K and one 20-watt 6500K of like kind and they've both been
running with these for well over half a year and they're doing
wonderfully... never had such dense plant growth. I'd recommend them
personally. Sorry you had such bad luck with them.

Well, I used warm whites. Useless. No doubt proper 6500K ones work better,
plus you're at about 2 watts/gallon. I was unable to get as good growth
with 1.3 W/gal; as I did from .80 W/gal using a T12 bulb.

They're justnot big enough for larger tanks and if you use enough of them
to price even lighting you just spent way more than if you'd gone T12/T8.

They're small bulbs. They're probbaly ok for small tanks if you shell out
for decent ones with a decent color spectrum I guess, but my thinking
these days is LED's are a better choice than screwins for that sort of
tank.


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Need Mercedes parts ? - http://parts.mbz.org
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1970 280SE, 72 280SE | Old wris****ches http://watches.list.mbz.org