Light Chart- Low, Medium, High? Your answer!

[supatank]

This is really interesting because i actually have the same light fixture (aqueon dual t5 light). Now my question is; wouldn't it be more beneficial to just take out one bulb, that way it will make use of the reflector since having two is crowding it, which renders it useless?

[emc7]

I doubt that would help. Say taking out a bulb improves the reflector up to 1.5X the 1 bulb, its still not as good as 2 bulbs. And having an open socket is an invitation to corrosion, shorts and shocks. It would only be safe if you removed the socket and rewired it.

[aMawds]

So I can't really read the graph for my situation. My tank is a 15 standard, so height is 12 inches. However I have about 3 inches substrate. Running a single T8 with a reflector that had plenty of room but was painted gloss white, so I improved it with some tin foil. Only reason I'm here asking about this is because my anacharis stems are growing off the main plants like mad, but then a lot of the time they seem to sort of turn away from the light. The closer they get to the light the more they seem to do it. Wondering if I maybe have medium light at this point and going into high when they're a couple inches from the fixture like that, thereby needing co2 at that level.

[supatank]

Originally Posted by emc7 I doubt that would help. Say taking out a bulb improves the reflector up to 1.5X the 1 bulb, its still not as good as 2 bulbs. And having an open socket is an invitation to corrosion, shorts and shocks. It would only be safe if you removed the socket and rewired it.

let say it is 1.5x better for 1bulb. That still good considering how much energy i would be saving vers. 2bulb!? If that is the case, then i would be able to save even more energy if i bought two fixture and have 1 bulb in each; that would leave me room to spread the light evenly throughout the tanks and not have it stationary in either one spot or another. Isn't that what really matter at the end of the day, is to get the light out to all the plants?
Corrosion wise...for what it worth, the fixture does come with a plastic splash protector.

[emc7]

No open sockets, just bad, bad. You've have to find a T5 plug.

I believe anarcharis is a low or low-medium light plant. If the light is too strong, CO2 won't help, you need a different plant. Match the plant to the light. Like there are plants you plant in the sun and others in the shade, mix them up and both suffer.

[grogan]

Originally Posted by aMawds So I can't really read the graph for my situation. My tank is a 15 standard, so height is 12 inches. However I have about 3 inches substrate. Running a single T8 with a reflector that had plenty of room but was painted gloss white, so I improved it with some tin foil. Only reason I'm here asking about this is because my anacharis stems are growing off the main plants like mad, but then a lot of the time they seem to sort of turn away from the light. The closer they get to the light the more they seem to do it. Wondering if I maybe have medium light at this point and going into high when they're a couple inches from the fixture like that, thereby needing co2 at that level.

Let me break the formula down for you sir. So you have 3" of substrate, simply add that to the formula.

So a single T8 bulb with a decent reflector on 3" of substrate would give you 9" of tank height. Since this is below what the chart shows, my best bet is low-medium light. If you raise the light 3" it will cancel out the 3" of substrate and put your aquarium back on the chart.

The basic idea is to measure off of the substrate and adjust the light accordingly.