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Re: Aquatic Plants Digest V4 #692


> Matt, aka, Crimson2 at home_com has related his experience with algae and
> incandescent lighting. The Dennerle company has literature that corroborates
> Matt's experience.

So do I:)
Guess what happens when you lower your lighting amount? This is often what
happens when you add incandescent lighting since, it is as Ivo said, far
less efficient than FL's etc. Now you have a slower running rate of energy
going into your tank, often much lower. Lower lighting tanks have easier
times dealing with algae typically. Imbalances appear much slower.
Corrections are done much easier as well. Relating color to intensity is a
problem here. A correction in the CO2 / nutrients balance will solve your
algae problem. You can keep your lights that you have.

>Dennerle claims that algae prefers lighting with a blue
> spike while plants prefer lighting with a red spike in the spectrum.

Well there are some species of algae that will grow and can quite well in
fact at 3000K(BBA, 2-3 species of hair, Browns etc.) Algae are far more
adaptable than plants regarding light usage and harsh environments. Just
give the plants what they want. But generally there is less algae at this
color temp. Plants do very well. HP sodiums do about the best but they are
quite yellow and a little higher up in temp. There are also algae that does
well at the blue end. Preferences depend on species of algae. They will all
exist at either end of the spectrum. You can pick your poison essentially. I
have done many types of light colors over the years. I can always get the
plants to do well and not have algae except if you have all atinic 7100K
bulbs or something truly sick:) Plants grown in red only light tend to have
a more washed out color such as Ludwigia inciliata, Ammannia's, Rotala's.
Add the blue and you get a nice rich red color.
FWIW, 
Regards, 
Tom Barr