viktorlantos
Aquascaper
We had this discussion several times that plants do not need high light as they do well with lower too with good nutrient dosing, CO2 etc. I am a believer that some plants really need more lights. Name it as 1 watt / liter or a similar stuff does not matter. Yeah you can keep most of them with half or 3/4 of the light too, but the result will be different.
A high light plant with less light will melt, will be leggy will be green and less colorful. For me this is trully not acceptable and for this reason i never recommend a plant like this to lower conditions.
We have 2 plant holder tanks where we can see how plants react to different conditions.
The basic setup is pressurized CO2 with AM1000 external reactor. 2028 Eheim for filtration and Hydor Koralia 2800 as a support pump for the 240 liter tanks to keep good circulation even when the tank is fully loaded and crowded. Both thank goes with EI ferts daily and Easy Carbo.
Originally we kept the plants with 2x54 watt (ATI with powerful reflectors). But many plants had problems. I allways wanted to turn up the ligth too 4x54Watt (same we're using on our planted tanks), but in a plant holder this is way too much especially as plants rotate quickly and transform leaf mass cause lots of algae if the light is too much.
Slow grower shady ones are more open to algae or large stems where emers leaf drop off in the first 1-2 weeks.
FYI we use the light for 7 hrs a day.
But when all the light is up the tank is turning to a different dimension. Many plants get orange, red, purple etc colors. You usually not see this with 2 tubes. Plants which not goes well in a crowded holder tank like Rotala Walichii turn to really nice. Pogostemon Stellata, Echino Reni, Proserpinaca, Lotus, Aponogeton C. Red, and of course HC, Micranthemum Umbrosum, HM gets enough light even when the tank is crowded.
Maybe some plants would act differently sometimes if they would be in a soil not in their original pot, but the more lights makes wonders with many plants.
The issue is that with my photo gear the color madness is too hard to capture. But a couple samples here:
plants are toppped currently, but hopefully this gives an idea.
Echino Reni from green emers to red and to purple with more light on in.
Ludwigia Arcuata in our planted tank. With 4 tubes and without any shaders around the plant.
older shot 2 tubes. Sorry but the tank is fully packes and the plants are grown too much. But There are much less colors here. WB is different but that does not add too much. These shots are more green. And it's not visible here which plants are strugling because of the less light or the shader plants.
Proserpinaca gets less color with less light. Only high light boost this plant.
This is just a discussion starter. Of course many condition is different etc etc. But this is experimental how more light add an additional dimension to different plants.
Will do another shoot a week later on the holder tanks when plants will grow a bit. Maybe the difference will be much more visible then.
A high light plant with less light will melt, will be leggy will be green and less colorful. For me this is trully not acceptable and for this reason i never recommend a plant like this to lower conditions.
We have 2 plant holder tanks where we can see how plants react to different conditions.
The basic setup is pressurized CO2 with AM1000 external reactor. 2028 Eheim for filtration and Hydor Koralia 2800 as a support pump for the 240 liter tanks to keep good circulation even when the tank is fully loaded and crowded. Both thank goes with EI ferts daily and Easy Carbo.
Originally we kept the plants with 2x54 watt (ATI with powerful reflectors). But many plants had problems. I allways wanted to turn up the ligth too 4x54Watt (same we're using on our planted tanks), but in a plant holder this is way too much especially as plants rotate quickly and transform leaf mass cause lots of algae if the light is too much.
Slow grower shady ones are more open to algae or large stems where emers leaf drop off in the first 1-2 weeks.
FYI we use the light for 7 hrs a day.
But when all the light is up the tank is turning to a different dimension. Many plants get orange, red, purple etc colors. You usually not see this with 2 tubes. Plants which not goes well in a crowded holder tank like Rotala Walichii turn to really nice. Pogostemon Stellata, Echino Reni, Proserpinaca, Lotus, Aponogeton C. Red, and of course HC, Micranthemum Umbrosum, HM gets enough light even when the tank is crowded.
Maybe some plants would act differently sometimes if they would be in a soil not in their original pot, but the more lights makes wonders with many plants.
The issue is that with my photo gear the color madness is too hard to capture. But a couple samples here:
plants are toppped currently, but hopefully this gives an idea.
Echino Reni from green emers to red and to purple with more light on in.
Ludwigia Arcuata in our planted tank. With 4 tubes and without any shaders around the plant.
older shot 2 tubes. Sorry but the tank is fully packes and the plants are grown too much. But There are much less colors here. WB is different but that does not add too much. These shots are more green. And it's not visible here which plants are strugling because of the less light or the shader plants.
Proserpinaca gets less color with less light. Only high light boost this plant.
This is just a discussion starter. Of course many condition is different etc etc. But this is experimental how more light add an additional dimension to different plants.
Will do another shoot a week later on the holder tanks when plants will grow a bit. Maybe the difference will be much more visible then.