lighting ?

[TaTeR ToT]

i just recently(as in last night) upgraded my lighting on my lowtech 75g planted tank to a 48" Coralife Aqualight Deluxe 4x 65watt PC, its currently running 2x 10k and 2x actinic, the actinics are being replaced with 6700k lamps.
the 10k lamps are only 3 months old.

i am wanting to know what i can grow with this light?
i am not running Co2.
the substrate is pool filter sand.
i am wanting to upgrade to caribsea planted substrate, what kind i dont know.

i currently have a bunch of val. spiralis, an anubias nana, some sort of sword, i believe a compacta sword, and tiger lotus'.

for filtration i am running 1x 2217 and 2x 300gph internals, i am upgrading to the 2217 + 2026.

lmk what you think.

[TaTeR ToT]

anyone?

[TaTeR ToT]

no one has any input?
i am just wanting some ideas on what else i could keep as far as plants in this tank besides what i have.

[DUHK]

I wish I could help, but I am new to this myself. Sorry! >.< Best of luck to you though!

[ssrprelude]

If you're keeping the sand, you better get some root tabs along with Excel. No co2 in a tank that big is tuff to pull off.

[TaTeR ToT]

wtf - nobody has any advice at all!?

[TaTeR ToT]

finally lol.
yeah, the sand is going by by, i am replacing it with a planted tank substrate, i dont know what kind yet, its going to either be a seachem or caribsea sub though. no ada aquasoil as the tank is already stocked, i dont want ammonia killing off the inhabitants.

[Somefishguy]

Looks like you will have around 3.4 wpg. You may end up with a big algae issue with that much light and no CO2. Excel in That size tank is gonna end up costing you a lot over time so it might just be best to bite the bullet and go with pressurized CO2.

[Complexity]

I've never used PC lighting, but using the basic wpg rule, you're up to 3.47wpg on that tank with your new lighting. That is much too high with your current setup. So to directly answer your question of what you can grow with that light, the answer is ALGAE. And in a hurry!

Bright lighting is the very last thing to add to a planted tank. You only add it once you have the substrate, CO2, ferts and plant mass in order. Then — and only then — can you begin using bright lighting.

As a general rule of thumb, once you cross over the 3wpg line, you must dose CO2. And as already mentioned, with a tank of that size, it's exceedingly difficult to try to dose CO2 with either a yeast based DIY system or with Excel. And in either case, you can really be asking for more trouble than you'd want.

Having said all that... I believe that light will be a good one to use once you get the rest of the stuff in order. In the meantime, only use 2 of the 4 bulbs. Watch your photo period. Keep it short to maybe 8 hours a day. You can increase that if all goes well after 2 weeks. If you get algae, cut the time to even less.

You've already said you're changing your substrate which is good. You really can't use sand for a planted tank. Not with a good measure of success, at least.

Next, you really need to look at getting injected CO2. There's no way around it if you want to run 3.46wpg of PC lighting. There's not that much to it, and I can help you out if you need.

Once you get CO2 going, you need to get ferts. Dry ferts are the easiest and cheapest. Basically, you shove a measuring spoon into a powder and dump the powder into the tank. That's pretty much it. We can get into mixing trace ferts with water. It's really easy. It helps that I also have a 75g planted high tech tank so I already know the ferts by heart.

Okay, so you have plant substrate, injected CO2, and ferts. There's one last thing you need to do before turning all 4 bulbs on. Get plants. Stuff the tank with plants, even plants you don't intend on keeping long term. You want lots of plant mass.

And then... it's showtime! Turn on your bright lights and let the pearling begin!

[TaTeR ToT]

I've never used PC lighting, but using the basic wpg rule, you're up to 3.47wpg on that tank with your new lighting. That is much too high with your current setup. So to directly answer your question of what you can grow with that light, the answer is ALGAE. And in a hurry!

Bright lighting is the very last thing to add to a planted tank. You only add it once you have the substrate, CO2, ferts and plant mass in order. Then — and only then — can you begin using bright lighting.

As a general rule of thumb, once you cross over the 3wpg line, you must dose CO2. And as already mentioned, with a tank of that size, it's exceedingly difficult to try to dose CO2 with either a yeast based DIY system or with Excel. And in either case, you can really be asking for more trouble than you'd want.

Having said all that... I believe that light will be a good one to use once you get the rest of the stuff in order. In the meantime, only use 2 of the 4 bulbs. Watch your photo period. Keep it short to maybe 8 hours a day. You can increase that if all goes well after 2 weeks. If you get algae, cut the time to even less.

You've already said you're changing your substrate which is good. You really can't use sand for a planted tank. Not with a good measure of success, at least.

Next, you really need to look at getting injected CO2. There's no way around it if you want to run 3.46wpg of PC lighting. There's not that much to it, and I can help you out if you need.

Once you get CO2 going, you need to get ferts. Dry ferts are the easiest and cheapest. Basically, you shove a measuring spoon into a powder and dump the powder into the tank. That's pretty much it. We can get into mixing trace ferts with water. It's really easy. It helps that I also have a 75g planted high tech tank so I already know the ferts by heart.

Okay, so you have plant substrate, injected CO2, and ferts. There's one last thing you need to do before turning all 4 bulbs on. Get plants. Stuff the tank with plants, even plants you don't intend on keeping long term. You want lots of plant mass.

And then... it's showtime! Turn on your bright lights and let the pearling begin!

i will just run the 10k lights for now then un til i can get my hands on a nice co2 system, i know already that i want a 20lb co2 tank, less frequent fillings, ive read/heard that milwaki makes some of the best regulators, and i am guessing that i would want a nice electronic solenoid, aswell as an ada glass diffusser, and a small powerhead to push the co2 through the tank?
am i close?

for substrate i have been looking, and i think that either flora base, caribsea eco-complete, or red sea flora max is what i will go with.

[TaTeR ToT]

i have had good success with eco-complete black in my old 10g planted tank.

[cichlid1409]

i had good success with a 75g and the same light you have, keeping swords, cabomba, water wisteria, lotus, dwarf subulata, rotala and maybe a couple others (it's been awhile) . i did have a DIY co2 generator and i used aqua soil (the kind you buy at lowes or HD) i also used root fert sticks and liquid supplements occasionaly. massive healthy growth that i had to trim about once a week or so. just my experience and $0.02.

[Somefishguy]

Yup until you get CO2 Ide stick to the 2 lights only. Here is a list of plants that will work for the 2 light setup

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/low-tech-forum/56042-excellent-list-low-light-plants.html

[cichlid1409]

for filtration i am running 1x 2217 and 2x 300gph internals, i am upgrading to the 2217 + 2026.

the 2 internals are those powerheads or internal filters?

[TaTeR ToT]

internal filters, which as of 1 hour ago are no longer in the tank.