Obvious lighting question...??

[Iain Sutherland]

So i think?? i have a reasonable understanding of the relationship between light and plants following Clives brain exploding explanations in a recent thread... in theory i have a med/high light but regularly struggled with high light plants and something occured to me...

I have a 3D background in my tank that is coming out next week with a rescape and black substrate, is there any evidence to suggest that the dark background was absorbing light rather than the light being reflected down to the substrate off the glass??

Also does having a white substrate aid in the light being reflected around the lower levels of the tank??

Thanks all

 

[Iain Sutherland]

clive?

 

[ceg4048]

Well, I mean, yeah, dark colors will absorb more light but as I've mentioned before, 3D backgrounds do 10X more damage due to flow disruption than dark backgrounds or dark substrates could ever dream of doing, There is plenty of light avaiable in the vasr majority of tanks. One would really have to try hard to get below LCP.

Reflectios are coming from everwhere; from other plants, from hardscape and substrate, from the glass and even from the underside of the waters surface. Since there is only ever a low probability that a tank falls below LCP for any of the plants these days it's not worth worrying about what color the equipment is...but I would always worry about 3D backgrounds.

Cheers,

 

[Iain Sutherland]

cant wait to rip it out to be honest, roll on next thursday!!
thanks

 

[Morgan Freeman]

That's something I didn't know. Interesting.