How much lighting do I have? I have two 5 gallon tanks arranged in an L-shape. I have a 15 watt NO strip light about 5 inches above them, in a kitchen light fixture (it's a regular aquarium bulb in an undercabinet light fixture). This strip light angles over both tanks - think of the tanks and the light in an elongated A-shape.
This was not enought light at all to grow plants, so I added 9 watts of PC light over each 5 gallon tank. Now I run this PC and also the strip light. I am over the 2 wpg threshold, so I add Excel every day. Although I have a small amount of pearling, I still have a lot of hair algae. I'm wondering what my light intensity actually is. I read that PC lights are more intense then NO fluorescents, and NO is what the wpg guidelines are based on. I dose 1/8 teaspoon a day of Excel. Maybe that's not enough, and I have more intense light than I think I do?
Tank #3: An Eclipse hex, 5 gallons, that I took out the 10 watt PC that came with it and put in a 7 watt spiral flourescent bulb, 5100K. This tank has some hair algae but not as much as the other two. I add Excel daily to this tank also. How many wpg or wpg equivalent do I actually have in this tank?
Last edited by An t-iasg : 09-26-2005 at 08:18 PM.
Reason: fixed "watts" vs. "watts per gallon" amount
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