# rate my lighting setup plz



## candymancan (Aug 16, 2013)

So my 3 main tanks i was wondering what youd rate thrm as.. from very low to very high lighting..

My 55g Has a duel T5 48 Inch setup on it. One daylight bulb and 1 colormax

30g has the same t5 setup just a 36 inch one.

27g hex has 2x 24 inch t8 plant bulbs. And a duel t5 24 inch daylight and colormax..

Pretty sure the 55g is like around medium.. The 30g is probably medium high.. And the 27g is probably High..

But im not sure.. what do you guys think ? Clearly the 30g is much much shorter in height vs the other two so its two t5s make the water penetration higher.. the 55g is tall and has the same lighting setup.. its bright but i can tell it gets dimmer toward the bottom. 

The 27g has 4 bulbs on it. So despit it being 25 inchs tall im pretty sure its got high lighting.. But due to its odd hexagon shape the light is spread even toward the middle and bottom. But not on top.

Could i grow baby dwarf tears in the 27g with the 2 t8 plant bulbs and 2 t5s.. they arent high output but the colormax and daylight have the red and blue color spectrum combined with the obvious pink plant bulbs.

I have no issue growing swords. Anubias, java fern , watersprite in all 3 tanks.. The 55g can grow telethanra reneki but more at a bronze color then red..

The 30g can grow the reneki really quickly and bright pink.red. The 27g grows reneki and red tiger lotus bright red.orange and pretty fast.. I also habe another plant supposedly really hard to keep purple and its purple more towards the middle.top of the tank. I forgot its name off hand.

I want to redo my 27g.. tired of growing tall long plants.. i want more like a grassy bottom or green bottom.. hense baby tears..

I dont use co2 i just use liquid co2 every now and then.. I do use seachem iron. Api leaf zone. And seachem flourish..

Onky in the 27g though because itd cost too much for the other two tanks and they dont have nothing special in them really.


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## Angel079 (Feb 14, 2007)

The biggest deal won't be if you light is low-medium- height, but rather to find the balance between you lights & nutritional needs of the plants (and your fish, not every fish appreciated super high end lights).

Reading over this I'm understanding that your biggest concern is growing baby tears in your hex, right? 
I've grown baby tears several times on either the substrate or wood or walls but each tank it was in had mostly the same set up e.g. 55g with single t8 daylight 7500k over it, always grew nicely that way. Other plants if you want something short in there that always grow pretty easy too would be something like a hairgrass or gloss mat.

Hope this helps you


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## Embouck7 (Jan 11, 2015)

I was doing a simmilar set up on my 55 gallon. It wasn't enough light in my opinion, had alot of problems with the short plants getting enough light. Lots of people get down on the leds because there new and not a whole lot is known for sure about the uv output. So if you think you like growing plants and want to grow the hard stuff, pick up some led's. P.s. I would put your lights at a medium (provided you have fresh bulbs in and everything).


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## Embouck7 (Jan 11, 2015)

By the way whats the point of API leaf zone if your doseing iron and flourish. Just seems like overkill because API leafzone only adds iron and potash


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