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Is it possible not to have enough light?

Thanks, Darrel.
The reason I ask is that after a couple of weeks ago I have a lovely, lush tank, my wisteria has shed loads of their lower leaves.
This corresponds with my pennywort and duckweed going mental and taking over the surface. It looks wonderful but I wondered if it was cutting out too much light.

Cheers.

Are the symptoms similar to melt?
 
I think it would be more accurate to say ... it is stressed time and again about using to much light to match the amount of available C02!

No doubt high light & high C02 can be successfully used but it is a bit "living on the edge"

I don't like to see my fish stressed at all but I do like lush growth, it is about matching everything up to get the results you want.
I do have four tubes over my lounge tank but I also have a trickle filter that offers a lot of oxygen & surface movement via the overflow & I think that allows a little bit more leeway when it come to dosing high levels of C02?
However I am also home a lot of the time & spend hours nurturing my tank & I am pretty quick to adjust the lighting if I spot anything I don't want to see!
 
Hi all,
This corresponds with my pennywort and duckweed going mental and taking over the surface. It looks wonderful but I wondered if it was cutting out too much light.
Yes, basically it is cause and effect, the Duckweed and Pennywort have intercepted the PAR, and this has meant that the lower leaves of the Water Wisteria have not reached light compensation point (LCP) and have been discarded. At this time of year I give the floaters quite a trim as the tanks will receive less ambient light during the winter. In the summer I'm happy with 2/3 cover, in the winter I keep it to below 1/2.

The other way I get around this is that once the tank has matured I don't have any stem plants, other than Ceratopteris, Ceratophyllum and Cabomba caroliniana, and I just use these as sub-surface floaters.When I start the tanks I make sure I have a high plant mass right from the start.

The permanent planting consists of "easy" Cryptocoryne, Aponogeton, Echinodorus spp. with Anubias, Ferns and mosses. These all have slow growth rates, persistent "leaves" and low LCP values (this is conjecture, because we don't have actual LCP values for them), and it means if they really aren't getting enough light you can see and have time to move them, or thin the canopy.

Have a look at this thread <Is my lighting to much? | UK Aquatic Plant Society>

cheers Darrel
 
The other way I get around this is that once the tank has matured I don't have any stem plants, other than Ceratopteris, Ceratophyllum and Cabomba caroliniana, and I just use these as sub-surface floaters.When I start the tanks I make sure I have a high plant mass right from the start. The permanent planting consists of "easy" Cryptocoryne, Aponogeton, Echinodorus spp. with Anubias, Ferns and mosses. These all have slow growth rates, persistent "leaves" and low LCP values

Very interesting, thanks a lot.
 
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