Message: 1 Date: Fri, 19 Dec 2003 01:33:10 -0400 From: Airwreck <Airwreck at airwreck_com> Subject: [APD] Re: Co2 tubing and Light.... Whew!!! To: aquatic-plants at actwin_com
Greetings, "New kid on the block..." [Have a real name?]
Glad to see someone who does not mind doing some homework.
yeah I do have a real name....and if you say the ID real fast out loud you'll get the real name...Just a very unique way of spelling it...
I do this to keep a layer of privacy on the net...
> > the second is... does anybody have an answer to this > > I have been reading a lot about illumination and getting al kinds of info > lux, lumens, PAR. > doesn't anybody have a standard metering scale??? > when some one say Low light level or high light level... How many > foot-candles is that???
Doesn't matter much to the plants as foot-candles are based on the least useful spectrum for them, the human eye's response. Plants reflect away much of the green, which is weighted heavily, and need light in the red and blue that are given only about 10% weight in foot-candles.
Hummm... On this issue I disagree with you foot-candles are not based on a certain part of the spectrum falling on a surface.. but the amount of
electromagnetic radiation falling on a square foot of surface...
this measurement is based on a very old concept.. but any good quality light meter measures a broad spectrum for the photographer..and IMHO I have been doing photography for over 30 yrs..and have worked in both ends of the spectrum UV and IR photography.. recording outside the visible spectrum..and many of the B&W films we use are more blue sensitive then red..the meter gives us a starting point... which is what I am after with the light illumination of the plants
As to this lighting paradigm everyone is working from a system that only uses manufactured light... and this doesn't take into consideration that some folks like me use only Natural light... and so when you say the a figure of watts per gal.. well then I come back to my same question.. how many watts does the sun make at morning, noon and evening..
so I will still search the archives for an answer.. but I suspect that no one has ever done the testing to say that Rotala wallichii needs X amount of foot-candles for proper growth and Cryptocoryne beckettii needs X amount of foot-candles..
I guess I need to add that I am in a perfect growing environment, I live on a tropical island...and many of the tanks here get only natural light. and I am trying to cultivate many of the plants that I have...since we suffer a balmy 80* year round.. and get 300 days a year of full sun...so as a result of this environment I am trying to establish a growing situation where each species gets exactly what it needs.. If Rotala wallichii needs an avg of 7000 foot-candles per day to thrive.. then I can adjust the growing environment.
Plants have an action growth spectrum that is different for different plants, but chlorophyl A and B tend to give most of them big humps in the red and blue ends of the spectrum, so even a flat-spectrum standard, like PAR isn't too accurate for predicting growth potential.
Once you get it right, and get them enough of the light and other nutrients they like, what do they do? Some have the audacity to turn bright red, which would indicate they don't want what you just paid so much money to provide them!
Now you have me puzzled... Some of the plants that are thriving and growing greats guns.. are giving me intense red color ... just as I thought they were supposed to do...and what the folks at Tropica said they would do...aww geee
-- Wright Huntley -- 760 872-3995 -- Rt. 001 Box K36, Bishop CA 93514
_______________________________________________ Aquatic-Plants mailing list Aquatic-Plants at actwin_com http://www.actwin.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/aquatic-plants