50/50 Bulb and Plants (Pics!)

[Mzungu]

Keep in mind this is sort of an "experimental" tank, so I purposely did not trim anything since setup.

Specs:

5.5g RCS tank
Substrate: AquaSoil Amazonia
Lighting: 24W Odyssea PC fixture (with 50/50 bulb)
Ferts: None
Fauna: RCS, 1 Zebra Nerite, Ramshorn Snails, and MTS
Flora: Uhhh...Christmas Moss? (I think) and Dwarf Sag

I just wanted to show that actinics CAN grow plants. Aquatic plants DO use actinic spectrums. It's just not ALL they use. :)

I rescaped this tank about 2 months ago, changed out everything. I had originally intended to change the bulb in the fixture, for 2 reasons: First, because I prefer "plant" bulbs, and second, because these RCS are some of the most red I've ever had/seen, and plant bulbs would bring out their color so much more. Alas, I ordered a new bulb, but since it was a Current bulb and not Odyssea it did not fit correctly and in trying to fit it in the fixture I shattered it.

Anyways, here ya go!

[Mzungu]

P.S. That "Ammo Alert" thing in the top left corner was also experimental, because I wanted to see if AquaSoil did in fact leach ammonia. But it's very possible that since I used plants from an established system, and an established filter, the ammonia was immediately converted. And since the plants were already happy, they probably used up tons of it, as well. :)

[fshfrk]

Nice & informative MB!

[Mzungu]

Thanks, John!

[Roujin]

Hey Mzungu,

How happy are you with the Odyssea fixture? How long have owned it?

[Mzungu]

Besides the fact that other bulbs of the same configuration and wattage don't fit, it's never given me any trouble. I've heard horror stories, but luckily I've never experienced any for myself. :)

[wesleydnunder]

Looks great MB. I never would have thought 50/50 lamps would work that well. Thanks for the demo.

Mark

[Mzungu]

Sure thing, Mark! :)

I've had tentative plans for years to do several small 2.5 or 5.5g planted tanks only using certain spectrums of light over them, but never have gotten around to it. There's surprisingly little info out there about what spectrum aquatic plants actually use. You can find the "action spectrum" for Anacharis all over the place, but that's about it. And in doing a planted tank, there's so many other factors to consider besides what spectrum Anacharis and others actually use. (Aesthetics, algae control, etc.)

But I'm very pleased with the balance in this tank - the plants seem to be doing very well, and the snails (especially the nerite) and shrimp do a great job fighting what little algae tends to appear.

Forgot to mention, there's also some Hairgrass in there. It's planted in the "plant rock" or whatever that I got from one of the GHAC raffles. You can see it in the 2nd, 5th, and 7th pictures. But it hasn't done as well as the sag, of course. So it IS true that Hairgrass grows better with higher light and CO2. :) It could also be that it's in an area with a shallow layer of substrate...hmm...

[Roujin]

I've read somewhere that the light spectrum actinic gives off is beneficial for algae growth. You obviously don't have this problem. How long do you keep the light on?

[naps]

very cool concept! thanks for sharing.

[TaTeR ToT]

NOICE!!!
my old 5.5g planted rcs tank had a 15"24watt oddysea light with a 50/50 bulb, and it worked great.

im glad to see it wasnt just a fluke in my case.
nice little tank mb.

[Mzungu]

Thanks, guys!

Roujin - I have no idea! I set the timer a couple years ago, lol. I have various timers around my place, so the tanks go off and on in groups. :) I'll check tonight to be positive. But I'm pretty sure the photoperiod is about 10 hours.

[silentspidey]

looks great. makes me feel better about buying a light like that. the price is too good on them to not wanna. i have a good idea for my 5 gallon. do u have to feed ur shimp or do they do fine on the algae?

[Mzungu]

Good. Glad to help. :) Yeah, not being able to afford the fancy stuff sucks sometimes, lol!

Yes, I feed the shrimp probably about 5 times a week. Same as all my fish, except for some wee little ones. However, they're not at ALL picky. I just feed them flakes.

In fact, they surprised me once - I thought some strange bug-thing was decomposing in this tank once, but I'd just done a water change... I couldn't quite tell what it was because it was covered in shrimp. So, confused, and a bit disgusted, I pulled it out with tweezers. Turns out that during the water change I had stepped on a piece of raisin or dried cranberry or something (my bird has recently discovered the fun of flinging all her food out of her bowl), this somehow ended up in the tank, and everyone loved it. :)

[silentspidey]

hahaha thats crazy... thats a nice bird btw.
idk why but my shimp arent doing well. idk why. i have 2 of 5 left