Planted 90 with fluorescents??

[Eric]

Hi -

Has anyone had a well planted 90 gallon with fluorescents?  I have read that fluorescent lights don't work so well for tanks over 18" or 20" even with enough bulbs.  Is it true?

I am planning a new tank and am not sure between a 75 (20") and a 90 (24").  I am not even sure I want to plant it now -- I am also thinking about african cichlids -- but I may want to plant it at some point in future.   

Thanks for any thoughts/experience on this.

Eric

[BigDaddy]

Fluorescents over a 90 is doable.  You just can't grow high light carpet plants in them.  But you can have a beautifully planted 90 gallon tank using only fluorescent lights

[jetstream]

It all depends on what you would like to grow or your own expectation. You need to put in min of 4 regular fluorescent tubes to start for a low light planted tank!

Jetstream.

[RoxyDog]

Hi Eric,

charlie, artw, BigDaddy and at least few others have large nicely planted tanks, but I'm not sure if they use regular or CF bulbs?
You can have africans and plants if you want to, I do, you just need to pick the right plants.  Also, if you do go that way, most likely the plants you get will be low light ones, so then light's not an issue. 

[Eric]

Thanks everyone!  Sounds like I wouldn't be losing the planted option with a 90.  I can give up on high light carpet plants -- I usually run into algae problems there anyway.  I just want to keep the choice of high light plants I've had in shorter tanks. 

I thought the info I had might be a bit conservative or out of touch -- no substitute for experience. 

Cheers,

Eric

[artw]

Hi -
I started my 90 with 4 40 watt fluorescent tubes, and I was very happy with the results.  I grew stem plants, cryptocorynes, swordplants and dwarf sag with excellent results.  I have pictures somewhere on this forum and if you do a search for "told ya" you'll see my pictures in a long thread that I updated every couple of weeks.  You can clearly see growth with normal fluorescent tubes.   I have a 90. I used Fluorite, Co2 and light fertilizer (not EI which I started when I got my compact lights)

so yes you can do a wonderfully planted 90 with normal fluor bulbs but as daddy said you cant grow glosso or riccia on the gravel. you can, on the other hand grow dwarf hairgrass, echinodorus tenellus and swarf sag.

[darkdep]

I at one time had 6 48" T8's over my 90gallon tank, and it actually produced too much light for the plants I had (swords, Val, Hygro).  I had to cut down to 4 and then three tubes to get rid of the green water.  Never did CO2 on that tank which definetly contributed to the problem.

[Eric]

Thanks guys, good news all around.  Darkdep, I was thinking 6 would be about right.  May rethink that.  And Art, I found the photos -- great tank! 

One new problem, this is getting me all excited about a planted tank again, but my plan was a rocky 75 or 90 with africans (my first african tank).  The planted tank was just an option for some other year... 

Now I am so confused...

[artw]

Clearly you should get a planted tank. Right Big Daddy/Jetstream/Charlie/Toss/PFG?

All of us can't be wrong.

[darkdep]

Clearly you should get an African tank.  Right Pegasus/Oenology/RoxyDog/Cory/CA1/Gmann/SteveOOO?

I feel like spending more time that 3 seconds coming up with the African keepers, but I can't at the moment

[BigDaddy]

Why keep fish, when you can keep fish AND plants 

[RoxyDog]

Clearly you should have both.

[blizzack1]

so yes you can do a wonderfully planted 90 with normal fluor bulbs but as daddy said you cant grow glosso or riccia on the gravel. you can, on the other hand grow dwarf hairgrass, echinodorus tenellus and swarf sag.

The African's he's looking at possibly keeping will be compatible with these plants? 

Not to hijack, but do I have any carpet options with 60 watts of lighting in a 48?

[Eric]

Hey, my question was well answered.  No final answer on what to put in the tank, but its hard to argue with Big Daddy's point...  Methinks its kinda like chocolate or peanut butter...

I had 40 watts on a planted 32 that was about 17".  That's about the same ratio, less than 1.5 wpg.  I'm not actually sure how deep a 48 is.  I had success with dwarf hairgrass, a bit less with pygmy chain swords and no luck with much else.  And algae was a bit of a problem, but only in the carpet -- probably deadspots.

Don't know if that helps.  Hope its a start.

Eric

[blizzack1]

Hey, my question was well answered.  No final answer on what to put in the tank, but its hard to argue with Big Daddy's point...  Methinks its kinda like chocolate or peanut butter...

I had 40 watts on a planted 32 that was about 17".  That's about the same ratio, less than 1.5 wpg.  I'm not actually sure how deep a 48 is.  I had success with dwarf hairgrass, a bit less with pygmy chain swords and no luck with much else.  And algae was a bit of a problem, but only in the carpet -- probably deadspots.

Don't know if that helps.  Hope its a start.

Eric

Hey Eric, I meant the specific plant suggestions that Art made (would African's be compatible with those).

The tank is about 20" inches high, so I may have to give it a try!

[artw]

I don't know about plant compatibility with Africans,  Roxydog may.  she has a nice african planted tank.

[darkdep]

Roxy's probably been trying harder, but I was only ever able to keep Amazon Sword (most successful), Twisted Val and Giant Hygro (although the latter two would be dug up often).