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RE: Light color and plant growth pattern



> Date: Sun, 17 Feb 2002 07:59:40 EST
> From: Bob Olesen

> I noticed when my 5300K PC's were first installed
> I got a lot of horizontal growth in my newly setup
> tank with CO2 injection and high nutrients. This was
> a 75 with 220 watts (4 X 55 W)...
>
> This horizontal crawl may indeed have been due to
> the earlier suggestion that plants who can claim
> as much of a footprint as possible over bare ground
> can then populate the waters above at leisure...

Light intensity can make up for quite a bit. For instance, you don't get
light that's much "bluer" than MV, but it's hard to get macranda much redder
than that at http://www.mindspring.com/~nestor10/trials/macranda.jpg .
(That's _Ludwigia repens_ immediately beside it to the right.) The rest of
the tank's at http://www.mindspring.com/~nestor10/trials/55gallon.htm.

Light intensity can also cause the horizontal sprawl. Notice the Wisteria in
the left rear corner and the Cabomba in the right front.

The center section is illuminated with four 20W P&As, the two ends with 100W
MVs. It's a 55-gallon tank.

> ...the PC bulbs are surely weaker now but more germane
> to this discussion: they are surely more red shifted
> if anything.

Is the shift as red as changing out Cool Whites for Warm? Or perhaps the
loss of intensity _does_ outweigh the "red shift"?

Be careful drawing conclusions from a singular event...

-Y-