Lighting a Rena 350l Tank

[mlgt]

After reading the threads I know that many plants can still grow under a T8 lighting unit.

For me Ive had T8's for my 180l tank until I met with LondonDragon who easily persuaded me to upgrade to some T5's. This was pretty easy to do.

However for my newer project which is a Rena 350, the difference is that it doesnt have the simple flaps the Rio 180 has.
What I am faced with is I have 2 x (possibly) 39w T8s.

The height of the tank is around 71cm, even though that is measured without substrate so I can imagine with substrate it will go to around 65cm.

The idea was for my tank to go low tech, but as a way of maximising the growth for whislt the tank matures is injecting co2.
I know I should have trawled the forum more, but the question is. Can the relationship work with low lighting and co2 injection?

Or does it simply mean I inject a lower rate of co2 and thus the process of kick starting the tank become an even longer process. Im hoping to move in the fish within a months time.

Filtration it is currently being seeded with a semi mature (half mature media transferred) jbl e1500 which once I have transferred the fish over. I will bring the other jbl e1500.

Plant wise its mostly crypts and ferns, even though I know these are low demanding plants, but to ensure a healthy spurt a kick start is wanted. Fish wise I have around 20+ cardinals, 10 + corys, 2 discus, 6 amanos and cherrys.

Apologies for the essay, but makes sense I give the whole scenario out.

I guess the reply would be to just keep it low tech and still inject co2, but I wanted some idea on what others thought as its been racking my brain somewhat

 

[chrisfraser05]

Alrite bud.

I can sypothise with your situation here.

My 300lt came with 2xT8 30w's. its 22" deep and I have pressurised CO2 (drop checker light green).
Now after reading many articles relating to lower light being able to grow things just slower and CO2 compensation points etc I decided to try it before upgrading.

I have alot of stems at the back (mostly egeria densa and cabomba) and a variety of mid plants and HC in the foreground.

They are all able to grow with this lighting a depth. The only issues I have found are that the way they grow is not as attractive. The stems are growing alot thinner and less compact than in my old, shollower tank.
They are effectivly growing to the top "Reaching" for the light before growing densly at the top.

I went round to a friends house the other day, he got some of my cabomba off me a month ago... Couldn't believe how compact his looked in comparison!

The HC is growing too, just not quicky... not quick enough to save it from the corys

I've bitten the bullet and have ordered a T5 unit with 6x54w bulbs. Only intend to use 2 to begin with then up it to 3 later on.

With the right plants the T5's provide enough to keep plants alive however it may not be desirable from my experiance.

I will be looking at this and updating pics in my journal to show this happening at the weekend.

Hope that helps bud.

Chris

 

[mlgt]

Thanks. It is something that I had anticipated as the plants will be fighting for lighting and therefore grow a different way compared to a high tech tank.

I did think about bringing the 2 x 39W T5 with me and installing them with a small amount of silicone into a v shape and because the t5s are quite long its unlikely they will fall into the tank. But of course its not something I will try unless I can see another way of securing them properly.

I guess you are growing stems and mine are simple crypts, so the growth rate is not an overly important thing for me as I know over time crpyts will grow out nicely.

The mentioned tank hasnt been set up yet. I bought the tank before xmas and only managed to set it up before new years. The filter is currently seeding the tank with 1/2 mature media and once I get the plants in which is around 20+ plants of healthy crypts this will accerelate the rate in which the tank is deemed "mature" enough for fish.

I guess I will experiment for the time being, from what you say it isnt enough but if you are patient enough it will grow

Ive never had such a tall tank before and I chose this tank because its more beneficial for my discus. But when I replied to the advert. The owner said it was T5. When I got there, it wasnt

But he said hes had healthy growth, but the plants he had were vallis and cabomba. Anyways I will update as I go along. I will be scaping and planting this sunday so hope it all goes well