Loaches Online Forum

Hey everyone been a while since my last post, my question is it worth it to upgrade my lights to t5s? I currently run 2 20 watt t8s and dose with flourish excel daily and my plants are just not lush and green like i see everyone elses. I'm looking at a kit called Aruba Sun T5 Low Profile Retrofit Lighting Kit, I need something that will retain the hood as i have cats...lol sorry bout the crappy pic.

Valisneria is not a big fan of flourish exell / easy carbo

most plants need more co2 if u upgrade your lights u will need more co2 anyway maybe good to check the co2 in your aquarium first

since i have added a co2 kit my plants started to grow and make flowers

if u dont have any red plants or any forground plants that need more then 0.5w / liter i wouldnt upgrade lights

I would like to add some different plants I had some money wort and some red plants (cant remember the name) that didn't do well, even my Java fern doesn't get much growth

most red plants need about 1W light / gallon

put a co2 checker in your aquarium so u can see how much co2 is in the water

best is to just look for plants that dont require to much light and not to much co2 if u are on T8 without co2

if u put more light u could try adding bio co2 i did it to for a while

tropical has a nice site where u can see what plants dont require to much light or co2

http://www.tropica.com

i just remove a bunch of that Valisneria and plant some Cabomba and am working on a diy co2 system will post some more pics when done

Ok so heres what I've done I removed a bunch of the Valisneria and added Cabomba ,rigged up a diy c02 system hooked into the intake of my power head let me know what you think







oh and by the way those plants are not that green my camera sucks.

and how are plants doing with the addec co2 ?

did u checked your ph and kh yet to see how your co2 levels are doing ?

pH/KH chart is a not reliable way to measure CO2.
Get a drop checker.

There are ways of making T-8 lights as good as average quality T5NO.
The secret is in the reflector.

Home Depot has a T-8 shop light with diamond plate reflector. Go see that. By properly reflecting more of the light that might otherwise be lost out the sides, or by striking a poor quality reflector you can upgrade the lights without having to buy a new fixture. Just need to figure out a way to DIY one of those style of reflectors.

Here is a great link about reflectors:
http://forums.tfhmagazine.com/viewtopic ... 41&t=27562