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Light Recommendations

Lee Murray

Member
Joined
8 Jul 2019
Messages
37
Location
Cornwall U.K.
Hi guys, this will be a long post so apologies in advance. I have a 340L Rena tank, 47"L x 20"W x 24"D, it houses 6 Cory's and 48 Tetras, (Congo, Neon, Purple Emperor and Green Flames), at the minute I have about 1/3rd of the surface covered in water lettuce then a piece of bogwood covered with anubias and java fern, all these plants are doing fine but when I introduced amazon swords, ludwigia repens, ceratopteris thaticroides, (I think), and a load of cryptocoryne wendtii, (again I think), things went wrong and most of them started melting, this was late May so I moved them to a smaller tank and have been dosing easycarbo and EI salts ever since and most of them have come back now although I did lose a few. Around 4 weeks or so back I also bought 5 bunches of giant hairgrass, (eleocharis montevidensis), which is supposed to be an easy plant to grow but within a week they had all melted and I lost every one of them, (local fish shop is replacing them for me). Now I have to say that I only have 2x T8 tubes for lighting which I know is totally insufficient but I can't seem to find anything that looks suitable for the depth of the tank, I'm thinking that even a fitting that only covered about 3ft would be ok as the rest is covered in water lettuce as I said, I will probably have to replace the tanks lids with clear polycarb or something as some of my fish like to jump, any recommendations would be gratefully received. Thanks.
 
2 T8''s can be enough ( old dutch tanks ran on these very well), just make sure you change them every 6-8 months, these do get old fast. The new plants you mentioned should grow well on 2 t8''s, you could add reflectors to increase output. Did you add ferts in the first tank too?
With two t8''s the chances of algae are slim too.
 
old dutch tanks ran on these very well
Were the old Dutch tanks really 60cm deep?

I’ve seen photos of newer Dutch style tanks that are big (and deep) but as I recall (perhaps incorrectly) they had several fluorescent tubes (of course when I say newer, it’s been five years :oops: :oops: :oops: )
 
Doesn't seem a hell of a lot of light getting down to the bottom to be honest, plenty enough to see the fish but I wouldn't think enough for plants, a friend brought some led's round that were too bright to even look at but they made no difference to the tank.
 
2 T8''s can be enough ( old dutch tanks ran on these very well), just make sure you change them every 6-8 months, these do get old fast. The new plants you mentioned should grow well on 2 t8''s, you could add reflectors to increase output. Did you add ferts in the first tank too?
With two t8''s the chances of algae are slim too.
Yes I was using Easycarbo and Tropica Premium Nutrition, changed to EI salts now as I have had good results in the past with them.
 
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