[Prev][Next][Index]

Increasing lighting



Hello all,

After plenty of delays I'm just finishing up my new, improved lighting hood 
and am about to fire it up. I'll be going from a single tube to a four-tube 
fixture and am wondering whether I'm asking for trouble (read: ALGAE) if I 
make this jump all at once. Does it make any sense to go from one bulb to two, 
let the plants "catch up" to the new conditions (and let me figure out how 
much I'll need to increase CO2 and fertilizer to keep up), then add another 
bulb and later another? Or should I just go buy a bunch of new plants in an 
effort to consume the added light to good purposes?

Tank is 30-gal., soil/laterite/vermiculite/gravel substrate, DIY CO2, water pH 
6.5, 5 dKH, 3 SAE's (2.8" long), 4 black-skirt tetras, 6 bleeding heart tetras,
 4 neons, 4 mountain minnows, 3 kuhli loaches, one skunk loach; 4 huge, happy 
Java ferns; lots of plain old green hygro and Cabomba, both spindly but 
rapidly growing; lots of happy Elodea; and a few pygmy chain swords that are 
struggling. My goal is to have more of the "huge, happy" types and thicker 
growth, as well as the opportunity to try some more demanding species such as 
Crypts.

TIA for any and all ideas!

Christine in soggy Palo Alto