Re: Aquatic Plants Digest V2 #531

To: Aquatic-Plants at actwin_com
Subject: Re: Aquatic Plants Digest V2 #531
From: Hoa Nguyen <nguyenh at nosc_mil>
Date: Thu, 20 Feb 1997 11:39:15 -0800

>From: WebServices <webservices at elam-software_com>
>Subject: Hornwort, oh my!
>
>Alright, about a week ago I got my wonderful shipment of plants (as =
>everybody knows). I ordered three "bunches" of Hornwort, and was =
>surprised when I was shipped 3 bunches of fairly small (about 8") shoots =
>of Hornwort... Not any more! Since last week, these shoots have already =
>made their way from the bottom of the tank, all the way to the top, and =
>the shoots are now "tangling up" on the surface. This plant has at least =
>quadruple its size! Wow! I know it is in fact a floating plant, and =

Hornwort is a WEED!  At least to me.  I was overrun with it once, and
decided to get rid of it.  It took me months to finally get rid of all of
it.  It seems any tiny bit left floating in the aquarium soon gave me
another Hornwort jungle.  It was comical.  You thought you got rid of all of
it.  Then one day... it's baaaack.

>AABIb3Jud29ydCwgb2ggbXkhAK0FAQWAAwAOAAAAzQcCABMAEgAeAAUAAwAhAQEggAMADgAAAM0H
>AgATABIAGAA5AAMATwEBCYABACEAAAA0NzA3MkE1Nzg1OEFEMDExODY4NzQ0NDU1MzU0MDAwMACs

Can you set up your mailer to not send this stuff anymore?

>From: mike at microspan_com (Mike Roberts)
>Subject: T-8 Lighting construction
>
>Reflectors - I read someone's idea on the net of using PVC pipe.  What about
>thin wall 8" PVC cut lengthwise so that three sections would fit into a 24"
>hood.  They would then be lined with reflective mylar and each bay would hold 3
>each T-8 bulbs.  Comments or suggestions?

Too much work for that last 5% of improvement!  Just paint the whole inside
of your tank canopy white.  White absorbs very little light, so almost all
is going to reflect back into your tank.  Diffused reflected light from the
white paint is fine for plants.  Don't worry about focusing the light with
shaped and polished reflectors, too hard to do, too easy to mess up.  If
you're going to create your own reflectors, you have to really sit down and
do ray-tracing, compute the curvatures and the focal points, etc., or else
you may just bounce a large portion of the light right out of the front of
the aquarium.

>Color temp - after reading and some personal correspondence it seems that the
>4100k bulbs may be better for plant growth, while the 5000k and 6100k bulbs
>would be better for color rendition.  Any suggestions on mixing bulbs?
>  My knee jerk response is to start with 2/3 4100k bulbs and 1/3 6100k bulbs to
>get a strong amount of light farther down in the red and a few high temperature
>bulbs for sheer appearance to he human eye.  Does:
>
>((4100*6)+(6100*3)/9)=4766.6_
>
>or does the temp of the color not average out that way?

It doesn't work that way.

Personally, I find even the 5000K bulbs too yellow.  I like the color tone
of 6200K to 6500K bulbs.  I like a mix of 1/3 5000K to 2/3 6250K (Ultra
Tri-Lux).

Hoa