question about light level for 3 new plants

[mikeman]

hi everyone have been busy for a while. today I took a chance and bought 3 new plants without having exact knowledge of their lighting requirements. They are 1 water wisteria, 1 narrow leaf ludwigia and 1 ambulia (looks a lot like cabomba) which I heard needs less light than cabomba. My question is do I have enough light. I have168 watts of t-5HO equal amounts of 6500k and 10,000k. The tank is a 75 gallon standard. Did I make a mistake or should this be enough light ? I have my timer set for 9 hrs. a day and currently have bacopa carolinia, watersprite, amazon sword,and some straight vallisneria which are all doing great, have had them all for at least several months now. I just started adding exel because I heard it helps control algae on plants, which has recently begun to be a problem for me. Any answers would be appreciated.

[twotone12valve]

You should be just fine, I have all three the ludwigia is the hard one of the bunch. I have a little less than the 1 watt per gallon rule over my 125 and can grow them slowly but the look great.

[essabee]

You have more than sufficient light for these plants. What other plants do you have?

[C. Andrew Nelson]

Yes, sounds like enough light. I love Water Wisteria. Very easy plant to grow and always looks beautiful.

[mikeman]

Thanks for the advice. I will keep you informed if Ihave any problems with them. As for the last part of my question does anyone know about the flourish exel as far as it controlling the algae on the plants ? And also does anyone else have this problem or know what causes it ? Thanks again.

[twotone12valve]

Ok so exel is basically a simple natural carbon, I'm sure you have read the bottle. Yes it can help fight off algae and keep it in control this is typicallyiin the case of smaller tanks under 40gal, mostly because the amount of exel needed to kill algae is rather extreme. I use it with a DIY CO2 kit and I have good results.

[essabee]

When ever you have more than sufficient light and your plants do not use up the available nutrients in the tank water - you will have algae growing at a rate proportional to the available left-over nutrients. Plant growth is limited by the that nutrient which is insufficient for utilising these remaining left-over nutrients - this nutrient is usually carbon as the fish population and normal diffusion from atmosphere is usually too slow to fulfill the plants requirement. Algae on the other hand can utilise carbon present in form of carbonates - a source unavailable to plants. Giving the plants more carbon in form of either "exel" or CO2 will increase the plant growth rate and this will allow them to remove more nutrients from the tank water. You should always remember that the plants and the algae are competing for the same food source - lights, nutrients including carbon. Although plants are better able to utilise CO2 and "exel" - algae are not push-overs and you may have to adjust the lights-on period (or reduce its intensity) if you think that the algae growth requires to be reduced. Some algae will always be present - its requirement as the lowest rung in the natural food chain is desirable - but its presence should not be to a level where it becomes a problem.

[Crazygar]

Ambulia you'll have to watch, it's fine needles will collect debris from the tank and cause problems for the plant if it's not in an area of good flow (just enough to keep things moving). Other than that, you have a good amount of light to start out with.

Gary

[mikeman]

Thanks again for the help. So far even though its only about a week , all the plants are still looking great, I have been adding the exel only every other day and that seems to be working out good so far. The other thing now is I read its a good idea to add extra aeration at night because of the extra Carbon from the exel. Any thoughts on that?

[essabee]

'Excel' is reportedly a diluted solution of Glutaraldehyde - itself a liquid in natural state and used by the plants in that form itself. Aeration will not remove it. On the other hand aeration by air bubbles tend to increase the water surface and that increases gaseous diffusion from atmospheric air to water balancing the CO2 content to a level present in air. The CO2 builds up from plant and fish respiration at night, and is depleted below atmospheric level after it is used up by plants during the lights on period - aeration after this depletion during lights on period will tend to increase the CO2 level to match the atmospheric level. Aeration during the dark period will keep the CO2 level to that in the atmosphere - no advantage except in very crowded tanks. Aeration at night will drive away the extra CO2 (not the Exel) built up but is that an advantage when you need the same for your lights on period?

[Crazygar]

+1 on Essabee's comment. Unless the tank is super crowded, you don't have to worry about adding extra aeration at night (or day). I dose Excel and inject CO2 into my 7.9 and things are fine with the bioload in the tank.

Gary