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Re: Light level / nutrient uptake





On Fri, 4 Dec 1998, Morten Karlsen wrote:

> Yesterday I asked myself; why does some advocate high light levels, so
> that plants can "use up" nutrients in the water column. Like when
> running in a new tank.
>
> Are plants "better" than algae at burning nutrients at higher light
> levels?
>

I like brightly lit tanks for two reasons:  1) you can grow a wider
variety of plants and 2) I think a brightly-lit aquariums are more
attractive than dimly lit aquariums.

To the best of my knowledge, plants are no better than algae at using up
nutrients.

Maintaining my brightly lit tanks is a fairly delicate balancing act -
much more difficult than maintaining more dimly lit tanks.  Some algae
grow very well under brightly lit conditions and one slip can produce a
tank full of green water, hair algae, or both.  In my brightly lit tanks
there also seems to be a tendency for one plant species to burgeon at the
expense of all the rest.

But when you get it all working a clean planted tank sparkling in a beam
of direct sunlight is a fantastic sight to behold.


Roger Miller
Basking drowsily in clear sunlight on a crisp desert morning.