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Re: Light Intensity



At 80 watts over a 29 gallon tank, I've been contemplating recently how I 
could add more light. I figured this would be enough lighting on setup, but 
recently added some plants that aren't coloring as well as they should for 
example, red cabomba, rotala macranda and rotala wallichii. In a flourite 
substrate with iron & fert. tablets I don't get near the coloring I've either 
1) seen in pictures or 2) seen on the plants when they arrived from other 
hobbyists tanks. 

This is 4 20 watt NO flourescents directly over water (no glass). I've 
recently looked into a higher output flourescent (Philips Designer series) 
which I have on order and possibly a better reflector.

Sylvia


> As I've been reading the APD for lo these many years, one thing has been 
> bugging 
>  me - the amount of light people use. FAQs and Urban Myths generally 
> recommend 
>  "2-3 watts per gallon", a relatively crude measure that attempts to 
> compensate 
>  for potentially poor quality FL bulbs (like shop lights with crummy lumens 
> per 
>  watt and spectrum) and potentially marginal hoods with poor or no 
reflectors 
> 
>  (such as come with aquariums). 
>  
>  I've been hugely successful with 1.6 watts per gallon of FL light using 
> Triton 
>  and Penn Plax Ultra Tri-Lux bulbs in fixtures with typical reflectors 
placed 
> 
>  about 4" above the water. And thesea re 48" bulbs in a 60" tank! Since the 
> MH 
>  bulbs in the 120 are suspended above the water, the amount of light at the 
> water 
>  surface is the same as in the FL tanks (15,000 lux) and is not really like 
"
> 2.9 
>  watts/gal".