Re: Light intensity and water depth

To: Aquatic-Plants at actwin_com
Subject: Re: Light intensity and water depth
From: George Booth <booth at hpmtlgb1_lvld.hp.com>
Date: Fri, 17 Nov 1995 08:11:36 -0700
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Fri, 17 Nov 1995 03:39:01 EST." <199511170839.DAA14194 at looney_actwin.com>

From: Jayme Donnelly <Jayme_Donnelly%BOND__NOTES at notes_worldcom.com>

> One other question.  If depth is not important, then why are salt
> water/reef aquariasts concerned with depth and what type of lighting
> they use to "insure sufficient lighting reaches the bottom"??

I, for one, have not yet been convinced that depth is not important.
Perhaps Wright could reenter the discussion, but my impression was
that the "AquaMyth #1" was only debunked in the case of a plain tank
where light was free to reflect off the sides. 

A heavily planted tank usually has plants covering 3 of the 4 sides
and the light does indeed drop off dramatically from water surface to
substrate.  Many of the shorter plants are shaded by the taller
plants.  Stem plants especially tend to grow in an inverted pyramid
shape and cast a lot of shade as they get taller.  

A taller tank DOES need proportionally higher light at the surface if
low foreground plants are too receive enough light.  IMHO, the
AquaMyth is NOT a myth, at least for a typical planted aquarium. 

George