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Re: Light intensity
Phil Behrends wrote:
>> 2) Why do many of you think "more is better"? IMHO, more is never better.
>> More is trouble. Just enough is better.
>
>What exactly is "just enough"? I do not believe that more is better as far
>as light is concerned, but how does one go about figuring out what is "Just
>enough"?
Good question. Probably just as difficult as figuring out what is "More than enough". You don't know if you have "just enough" until you add more and
have trouble. Or, if what you have produces results you are happy with and no
trouble occurs, that may qualify as "just enough".
As Tom Barr says, "Start small (2w/g) and work your way up gradually."
I would venture the opinion that there are no hard and fast rules - everyone's
aquarium will be different and just enough for George may not be near enough for
Tom. We like our 1.6w/g over our tanks with our plants and our fluorescent bulbs
and our fertilizers. Just enough for us.
As another example, what is "just enough" iron supplement? When we were first
using Dupla drops, we started small and gradually increased the number of drops
until long, stringy "thread" algae appeared. We backed off a drop and the algae
disappeared. Went back a forth a few times to see if cause and effect held true.
Then we measured the iron levels with a LaMotte iron test kit and read between
0.1 and 0.15 mg/l. So now we know that an iron reading of 0.1 to 0.15 mg/l using
Dupla drops and a LaMotte test kit indicates "just enough" iron.
Of course, we don't know if that's chelated iron or unchelated iron or if there
is something else in the drops that actually causes the algae, but we know that
if we use Dupla drops and measure iron with a LaMotte test kit and get 0.1 to
0.15 mg/l, we are doing fine.
Like Einstein said, "Make thinks as simple as possible, but no simpler".
George Booth in Ft. Collins, Colorado (booth at frii_com)
http://www.frii.com/~booth/AquaticConcepts