Someone know the answer???

[Pisidan]

Ok I have a question cant figure this out I have plants in my 55 gallon Aqarium and I have lighting which are 4 energy saver lights..the watts used are 11 watts a bulb but they shine at 60 watts. Which would make I have 240 watts shining now is this good for plants or does it matter? with the florescent bulbs I had there were 2 and they were both 15 watts each whioch meant in my 55 gallon I had 30 watts in total does wattage make a differemce do energy savers because they shine brighter make it better for plants to grow. Please if anyone knows I would like to know. Any information would be helpful Thanxs!!

[saltydog]

Your new lights are compact FLUORESCENTS  & consume 44 watts. Your previous FLUORESCENTS consumed 30 watts. If we assume that the two similar lighting technologies have roughly the same efficiency then you have about 50% more light now. Judge for yourself. Is it brighter? When dealing with different lighting types what you really want to know is how many lumens are produced. Wattage is a measure of energy consumption not light production.

Also different lights have different colour temperatures (i.e. different amounts of colour spectra that are produced, measured in degrees Kelvin). Most aquarium plants are content with warm light (i.e. yellowish) whereas corals in marine tanks demand whitish blue light, hence the use of blue actinic bulbs to complement bulbs which produce a very white light (high Kelvin temperature).

This is all off the top of my head. Anyone else care to comment?

[Pisidan]

Thank you for the response!
Ok for lumens i think this is it isnt it on the bulb it says FCC:L2AlC60915 550Lm 1411. im figuring the 550Lm is the lumens is this good when it comes to lighting I do find the tank much brighter than it was but I dont want to lose my plants is there a bulb I can use with either Incad or flourescent because I have both tops to help with plant grow and needed light?

[saltydog]

Its not that simple. Some plants require more light than others.

Can you put both sets of lighting together in one canopy? If so, retain 2 power cords so you can choose to control lighting by using one set or both. Experiment to find out what gets the best results. If you still don't have enough light then rewire your fluorescent tubes to use T-8 tubes & an electronic ballast. These will give you a brighter light than ordinary fluorescents.

If you don't want to do this, why not research your particular plants on the many tropical fish sites on the internet & find out whether they require low or high light to grow well?

[Pisidan]

I know what the requirements are but what is low light...how much light is it...the plants I have are Pennywart, Hornwart and Water sprite actually a very large water sprite. That the problem though I dont know what low med and High light is? Is low light next to none or normal room lighting of a 60 watt bulb? If I have to I dont mind buying new ballists but Im trying to see if I can do alright with what I have now instead of going and buying new equipment!!!

[saltydog]

The number of lumens of light necessary to grow plants is also affected by the reflectivity of the interior of your canopy.  Keep it clean. Is it white plastic or polished aluminum? If not, you can increase its reflectivity by lining it with a reflective mylar film. (I have some if required.)

The number of lumens required is also greatly affected by the height of your tank. If your tank is 24" high then the light source is considerably farther from your plants than if it is your tank is only 14" high, for example, & you will need more lumens to get the same amount of light to reach your plants.

Even the amount of "oil" floating on the surface of your water will have an effect. Some types of filtration systems minimize this "surface oil" but you can also float sheets of newsapaper in your tank for a few seconds & then remove it. This tends to remove the oil quite effectively & also improves gas exchange at the surface which greatly benefits the health of your fish.

A general guideline for the uninitiated  (& which is far from being precise) is that you need a minimum of 1 'normal fluorescent watt' per gallon to achieve low light levels suitable for some plants. Your 55 gallon tank is a little shy of that unless you put all of your present lights together, hence the value of ensuring your canopy is highly reflective.

The more lights you have the more heat will be generated under the canopy. Some aquarists find it necessary to use fans to avoid overheating tanks during the summer!

Good luck!

[Pisidan]

Also if I buy some Aqua-glo or one of those full spectrum lights.Will it help the problem is the flourescent canopy I have only supports up to 17 watts and the incadescent only supports up to 25 watts. Guess I should make or buy a new canopy?

[dpatte]

a general rule of thumb for planted tanks is 1-3 watts of flourescent lighting per US gallon.

0.5 for anubias and javaferns
1 for other low light plants (crypts)
2 for medium light plants
3 for high light plants

Almost all plants like 3 watts/gal, but many dont need it to grow.

i would consider requirements for the pennywort and watersprite as medium, and the hornwort as low.

so if your tank is 50 gallons you would want 50-100 flourescent watts for good plant growth.

incandescent watts require almost 4 times these amounts.

[Pisidan]

Thanxs Dave..got some shop light fixture with Daytime lights 2 40 watt The Phillips F40T12 making it a total of 80 watts  whcih is 1.45 watts per gallon so im inbetween 1-2 I plann in the next month maybe by the end of January to add 2 more 40 watt Phillip daytime lights What is your opinion on this??? Just enough to keep them going alive and healthy major growth is not really an issue!