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Enough light for photosynthesis (pearling)?

Gary Nelson

Member
Joined
20 Jan 2011
Messages
1,292
Location
Leicestershire
Hi everyone,

I am still struggling to get photosynthesis to happen in my tank! Can anybody maybe pick up on what I have wrong or maybe doing wrong?

My corner tank is 180litres and about 65cm deep, I now have a good flow rate with my spray bar and 2 Koralias mounted in each front corner pointing down and towards the middle – my plants and grass seem to be swaying nicely. My tank is not that heavily planted, it has quite a bit of redmoor wood with weeping moss attached (vesicularia ferriei) most of the bottom covered with grass (echinodorus tenellus) and a nice big narrow leaf java fern with some anubias dotted about – I don’t have any tall stem plants now that maybe hindering flow etc.

I have 3 T5’s (24watts each) on for 7 hours a day and I am running injected CO2 at a rate of 1-2 bubbles a second, so that my drop checker is a nice lime green. My PH is around 7 and at the end of my CO2 period it drops to around PH6.4. My co2 comes on one hour before the lights and goes off one hour before lights out. CO2 is through the up atomizer and when I watch the CO2 mist looks like it is reaching all of the tank areas nicely. I am also dosing 7-8ml of TPN+ daily with a 30% weekly water change.

My thought is do I have my lighting high enough for this deep tank, I have thought of adding a fourth T5 light, this would then take it to 2.4 watts of light per gallon as opposed to the 1.8 watts it has now, do you need a certain amount of light for photosynthesis to start happening or am I jumping on the wrong track?

Can anyone help? I feel like I am on the verge of cracking this somewhat frustrating corner tank!

Gary
 
Re: Enough light for photosynthesis?

Do you mean pearling rather than photosynthesis? If your plants are growing and not dying then by definition photosynthesis is happening. I'm not sure on triggers for pearling - i think some plants do it a lot more readily than others! If your plants are healthy and growing i wouldn't worry!
Matt
 
Re: Enough light for photosynthesis?

I'm guessing you need more CO2 - 1 to 2 BPS sounds low for a 180 litre. Add this before considering more light, otherwise you'll get algae. Also consider more nutrients before adding more light.

Being densely planted also makes a difference, as the plants saturate the water with O2 to enable pearling.

Finally, as Matt mentions, don't consider pearling an essential component to succeed with a planted tank. If your plants are healthy and you're not getting algae issues, then all is good.
 
Thanks for that George, I will get an up to date photo on this afternoon when the lights are back on so everyone can see the setup, rather than just going on my description.

Cheers

Gary
 
Here is my tank, it has been planted for a couple of weeks now and I still have a large, single piece of redmoor in soak - as soon as its soaked enough to sink I am going to place it towards the back of the tank to add some height in the display.

P1000463.jpg

P1000458.jpg
 
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