Re: [APD] Lighting Question

["Richard J. Sexton" <richard at aquaria_net>]

At 10:45 AM 8/9/07 -0700, you wrote:
>aquatic-plants-request at actwin_com wrote:
>> Date: Wed, 8 Aug 2007 18:10:54 -0500
>> From: "Jeff Britton" <jwbrit at gmail_com>
>> Subject: [APD] Lighting Question
>> To: aquatic-plants at actwin_com
>>
>> Hello! I am new to planted aquariums, though I have been running marine/reef
>> tanks for a couple of years. I have a 49gal freshwater tank, at 3ft deep. I
>> have not started to plant it yet. For lighting I have a 400 watt metal
>> halide pendant, that currently has a 10,000K bulb in it that I originally
>> planned to use on a reef tank. I am worried this is too much light. I think
>> it being so blue will help, and I can position it higher above the tank. Any
>> thoughts? Do I just have to be selective on the plants I select? Thanks!
>>
>>   
>Another thing that will help is limiting the photoperiod.  I have a 
>friend with a gorgeous ADA tank who runs a strong metal halide for about 
>six hours and just enough fluorescent light to see the tank for the rest 
>of the photoperiod.  I don't think the color temperature will matter.  
>Algae does fine under blue light.

There's all sorts of ways to deal with that much light.

Grow nothing but very light intensive plants in the tank, whether
they're glosso, or lillies that presumably will bloom under that 
light (although letting the tank get some sunlight would help)
or water lettuce on the surface.

If you just want the tank darker use lilies: their leaves will block out 80%
of the light. If you want to raise hundreds of Ps. annulatus then use
water lettuce - the roots might be unsighly to us but it's a dessert
buffet to baby fish especially small top feeding ones like Epiplatys.

If you had the light 3 or 4 feet above the top of the tank you
could grow papyrus in the tank too. It would grow about 2' above
for the frilly one and 3-4' above for the regular papyrus. And you
could make your own paper if you wanted.

Yeah, that's what I'd do. Some papyrus at the back, water lettuce
or an exotic large salyania and a bunch of PS. anulatus, preferably
the Monrovia (Harbel) form with the solid red pectorals.

The papyrus would cut down on a lot of light getting into the
tank and would also suck nutrients out of the water very quicky.

You could even use terrestrial plants sitting under the light to
take some away from the tank.

http://images.aquaria.net/books/The_Living_Aquarium/
http://images.aquaria.net/books/The_Living_Aquarium/DSCF0008s.jpg

I've grown the regular papyrus for ages here and just recently got
a small bit of the frilly stuff which is dying to take over a corner
of a tank:

http://images.aquaria.net/tanks/rjs/tk-1/2007/Aug10/
http://images.aquaria.net/tanks/rjs/tk-1/2007/Aug10/IMG_6635x.jpg
http://images.aquaria.net/tanks/rjs/tk-1/2007/Aug10/IMG_6636x.jpg





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