Greggz 120G Planted Rainbow Tank

burr740

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Bet they'll give you a face full of water if you get too close after dropping that food
 
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Greggz

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Yeah Burr they usually are pretty relaxed. A few will get going with sparring from time to time, but all in all pretty tranquil. I find it therapeutic to sit back and watch them for awhile.........especially with a nice single malt scotch.....just waiting for 6:00 cocktail hour now!
 

Greggz

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A little follow up to the videos above. I’ve mentioned a few times that I am guilty of falling into the throes of “Collectoritis”. Just like with my Rainbows, I am very weak when it comes to resisting the urge to collect. I now have 26 plant species, and honestly, it’s probably too many. That’s why compared to some, mine is more of a wild unorganized mess.

So I’ve never done this, but for those who might be interested, here is a pic of the tank with the plants labeled. Keep in mind this is just a snapshot in time, and it’s constantly changing and evolving. I am really going to try and stop buying, as honestly, I just don’t have anywhere to put anything new.

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1-Bacopa 'Compact', 2-Limnophila Aromatica "Mini", 3-Hygrophila Corymbosa "Kompakt", 4- Rotala Blood red, 5- Rotala macrandra variegated, 6- Limnophila Belem, 7- Ludwigia Sp. Rubin, 8- Acmella Repens, 9- Lilaeopsis Mauritiana, 10- Blyxa Japonica, 11- Pogostemon Kimberley, 12- Hygrophila Odora, 13- Alternanthera Reineckii Mini, 14- Pogostemon Helferi, 15- Ludwigia Cuba, 16- Helanthium Quadricostatus, 17- Lobelia Cardinalis Small Form, 18- Nelsonia Canescens, 19- Didiplis Diandra, 20- Pogostemon Helferi Red, 21- Ludwigia Sp. Red, 22- Proserpinaca Palustris, 23- Mayaca Fluviatilis, 24- Bacopa Colorata, 25- Penthorum Sedoides, 26- Rotala Indica True
 

Greggz

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Love the vids Greggz.

Simple solution to “Collectoritis”. More tanks.........
Appreciate the compliment on the vids. It's hard to convey the movement of color in the tank with a still pic. It never illustrates what I see, if that makes sense.

And yes, more tanks has occurred to me. I had a tank failure I mentioned earlier in this thread, and that tank is sitting there in my basement waiting to do something. I'm contemplating resealing it, and setting up more of a proper dutch scape in it, maybe even Phishless. In the planning stages now, and the more I consider it the more I think it's probably going to happen.
 

Greggz

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Catchy ain't it!

@Greggz wasn't there another plant you were also looking for @ one time, something variegated?
Can't remember if it was you or someone else.
Phishless did you have to shield your eyes when watched the video? That's a lot Phish, isn't it? Thought it might give you the willies.:D

And didn't you have some kind of AR purple or something? I do seem to remember something purple you had that looked very interesting.
 
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Greggz

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Poly- Sunset???
Yeah that was another one. I looked it up and you also had something you were calling AR Purple? Notwithstanding my comments on collectoritis, I would probably be interested in both.
 

Greggz

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So I had a plan for this weekend………..but now I’m not so sure.

Here’s what’s going on. When I upgraded my lighting, I went from 4 x 48” bulbs, to 2 x 60” + 4 x 48”. I also staggered the 48” bulbs to provide more coverage from side to side on my 60” tank, and lowered the lights about 2” to get them closer to the substrate.

If you followed this journal then, you saw I had a dramatic increase in PAR (center front substrate 48 to 135 PAR). I control three banks of two bulbs, so back, center and front. I’ve been toying lately to see how long I could run all six bulbs for, without an outbreak of algae. This limit turned out to be right about 4 hours.

So that got me to thinking, and I decided to borrow Hoppy’s PAR meter again (thanks Hoppy!), and raise the lights back up as far as I could into the canopy, to see if that would lower my PAR, and then I could run all six bulbs for a longer period.

So this morning I set about taking some readings with 4 bulbs (back/front), and with all 6 bulbs (back/center/front) to set a baseline before I moved things around. Well, I was pretty surprised at my readings.

Here’s a picture of what I had then. I didn’t take a picture of the current configuration, as that would mean removing the canopy, which is a bit of work. I have changed a few bulbs since then, as noted below.

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Top to bottom bulbs, left side what is in the picture, right side what is in there today.

Giesemann Super Flora 54w………….Giesemann Super Flora 54w
Zoo Med Ocean Sun 10,000K 54w…Truelumen Flora 54w
ATI Purple Plus 54w…………………….….ATI Purple Plus 54w
TrueLumen Flora 54w………………….…Plantmax 3000K 54w
Giesemann Tropic 80w……………………Giesemann Tropic 80w
Giesemann Super Flora 80w………….Giesemann Super Flora 80w

The biggest change is the Plantmax 3000K. @burr740 told me that bulb has tremendous PAR, and now I am sure he is right. The readings with all six bulbs on now are pretty much thru the roof. Below is a picture of the tank with the readings with 4 bulbs vs 6 bulbs, at various places around the tank.

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As I looked at these numbers, I began to think that I probably don’t need to run the center set of bulbs at all? The PAR reading with just the 4 bulbs seems to be high enough to grow about anything. At least I think so, and was curious as to other opinions? So for now my plan is I am not going to raise the lights, and just run the 4 bulbs for a month or so and see how things go.

Since I have the center fixtures already mounted, I am considering buying an Actinic & a very, very red bulb with low PAR (Powerveg 660??) to run in them. Run those maybe just an hour or two a day, and mostly to see the effect it would have on color when taking pictures.

So I have two thoughts from this morning. #1 is having a PAR meter available is a handy thing. I’m thinking now I may just buy one. And #2 is that bulbs have various levels of PAR, and guessing what your values are is just that……..guessing.

And one more thing. All that mumbo jumbo I posted about collectoritis……well I just couldn’t resist and picked up a few Erio Polaris. I saw them in a journal on TPT, and one thing led to another, and yada yada yada I have more plants.
 

burr740

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Nice update Greggz. Interesting to see how the numbers change. I think 4 bulbs will work just fine, and you may find some of the difficult species become easier.
 
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Greggz

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Nice update Greggz. Interesting to see how the numbers change. I think 4 bulbs will work just fine, and you may find some of the difficult species become easier.
Yeah Burr I was really surprised. All the readings with the 6 bulbs were higher than last time, and I'm thinking that Plantmax is a beast.

What do you think about a Powerveg 660 & 420 in the middle just for kicks?? Or would a true actinic in combo with the 660 be less PAR and provide good color? Probably not going to run them much, but would be very interested in the colors (both plants and fish) they might provide.
 

burr740

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Im not sure what the difference is in the Power veg and and a regular 420 actinic. Mine is a zoo-med.

As far as I know only the pv "full spectrum" bulb is uv, so it might be the same difference. Either one will make those Rainbows pop even more

Plants LOVE that 3000K btw
 

Greggz

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If I can get to it tomorrow, I will put the 3000K bulb in one of the front fixtures and take some readings and pictures. I'll be curious to see the effect on PAR in the front of the tank.
 

Greggz

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Hey Burr I know you like playing this game, so here a couple of shots from just a moment ago. The first one is the 4 bulbs as described above. The second is just the ATI Purple Plus and the Plantmax 3000K. This gave me a thought. I am going to move those two to the front slots tomorrow and take some new readings and see how the colors pop. I'm thinking that might work out well.
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Greggz

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So today I put the Purple + and the Plantmax in the front slots to see what the difference in PAR was. Now keep in mind I would guess that the Purple + by itself is pretty low par. Well, the Plantmax lived up to the expectations.

PAR readings in general were about15 to 25 points higher anywhere near that bulb. It really is a beast. If anyone needs to increase PAR, it would be a good choice. With the center lights, I am interested in the color, not the PAR (prefer lower), so I ordered a Powerveg 660 today. I am going to try paring it with the Purple + and give that a try.
 
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Greggz

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So I replaced the Plantmax 3000K with the Powerveg 660. The pic below is the same one as earlier in this thread, but with an update with the Powerveg added. So the first reading is with 4 bulbs, the second is with 6 bulbs (Plantmax 3000k), and the bottom number is with 6 bulbs (Powerveg 660 replaces Plantmax).
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As you can see, the Powerveg 660 is less PAR than the Plantmax, especially at the substrate. How much, I can't say for sure. But it does illustrate that T5HO bulbs can have considerably different PAR values, not to mention color.
 

Greggz

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I have been messing around with running different combinations of lights today. I ended up taking the canopy down, as I had to adjust the placement of the middle set of lights. They were staggered, but with the Powerveg 660 and the Purple + in the middle slots, it made one side of the tank more purple and the other more red. So I set them both in the center so the color spread is more even.

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So here’s the current set up top to bottom.
1. Truelumen Flora 54w
2. Truelumen Flora 54w
3. ATI Purple Plus 54w
4. Powerveg 660 54w
5. Giesemann Tropic 80w
6. Giesemann Super Flora 80w

I took the pictures before adjusting them so that they were all in a straight line, but you get the idea. As you can see, that Powerveg 660 is RED.
To help illustrate how the tank looks different under different light, here’s a set of pictures taken just a moment ago. I don’t know if others find this interesting, but I do. If you focus on one plant, like the Bacopa Colorata, you can see how it looks really different under different lights.

So here we go. With all six bulbs 1,2,3,4,5,6

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With bulbs 3,4 & 5,6
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With only bulbs 4,5.

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And while this last picture looks too red, in person it actually looks pretty cool. Things just really pop, especially the colors of the Rainbows. I am running it now for the last hour in the evening, and it really gives the whole tank a crazy different look.

Other than that, have Burr micro mix V5.15 on tap for this week. Should be interesting. He mixed it for Fe .15 in my tank, with the other micros stronger than the last batch. It will be interesting to see how it goes.
 
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