165W for 30 gallon????????
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Yes a lot of fertilizers. Also if the tank is brand new some plants that feed not only from the water but from the roots too will definitely need some help from the substrate. Fertilizer pellets should help.
I think that with so much light the thing to watch is pale leaves - lack of Iron.
--Nikolay
I think that with so much light the thing to watch is pale leaves - lack of Iron.
--Nikolay
Watts-wise, that is a lot of light for the standard 30 US gallon AGA aquarium size. It will be a very demanding environment to maintain. The usual 30 US gallon aquarium is 16 inches deep. What type of 30 gallon do you have that is 19 inches deep?
You didn't mention whether you have a CO2 source. DIY CO2 at that wattage would have to be very consistent to maintain an algae-free aquarium. There is not much "wiggle-room" (as Mr Barr would say).
110 watts, 2 x 55 watts (in my experience, and can grow anything), is a good number for this size aquarium.
It depends on how high the light is above the water surface, what you want to grow, how much time you have to maintain the aquarium, whether you will be on holiday many times a year (leaving the tank to its own devices or to a tank sitter), what the substrate is like, and more.
Good luck if you decide to go this route.
Andrew Cribb
You didn't mention whether you have a CO2 source. DIY CO2 at that wattage would have to be very consistent to maintain an algae-free aquarium. There is not much "wiggle-room" (as Mr Barr would say).
110 watts, 2 x 55 watts (in my experience, and can grow anything), is a good number for this size aquarium.
It depends on how high the light is above the water surface, what you want to grow, how much time you have to maintain the aquarium, whether you will be on holiday many times a year (leaving the tank to its own devices or to a tank sitter), what the substrate is like, and more.
Good luck if you decide to go this route.
Andrew Cribb
5wpg is doable IMO, at worse you can adopt a shorter light period, say 5-6 hours if you get into any problems. Not a fair comparison but I tried a 250W MH over half of my 55gal for a few weeks, no real problems besides heat.
Let us knwo how it works out
Giancarlo
Let us knwo how it works out
Giancarlo
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I currently run 130 watts on a 30 cube, it was fine for a couple of months then I got lazy, skipped a water change, went off my dosing schedule and an unrecoverable algae laden mess was the result. I did a comlete tear down, replanted with a lot of fast growers, stems and rooted which has been up for a week now, I'm getting traces of green algae on some of the lower leaves (which are probably in the process of dying off anyway) and the filter, but that's all and the plants are definitely growing.
the tank is 19 inch tall!what if i go with 110 wpg???will this be ok?i have 2 diy co2 with the canister from nutrafin.i thought of that cause the tank is tall and i have riccia in the tank and ive heard that to grow riccia you need high lighting wich from what ive seen is like 4wpg or more.or im wrong?thanks for the advise!
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I have a 28 gallon bow that is 20" tall, I believe, and I recently put on a 130W power compact. The plants do well, and I did bump up the fertilizer a little. Before I was using a 4 bulb home built fixture using 80W, and everythng grew fine, but certainly not as fast or healthy as it does now. I did however get an algae problem (see my post in algae specific problems section). Tonight I started a blackout for a few days to see if this helps. Once I start lights again I'm going to increase fertilizer and Co2 levels. You can certainly do it and it will work out great, but if you have algae problems like i did, you might have to take steps like I did to remedy or prevent it all together.
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