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Light height/Dosing advice for no-Co2 12 gallon long.

Discussion in 'Non-CO2 Methods' started by larcat, Jul 26, 2012.

  1. larcat

    larcat Junior Poster

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    Hi!

    I've got a 12 gallon long currently in DSM.

    Substrate: Vermicompost under Azoo Plant Bed.

    Light: Marineland 36" Double Bright. Marineland says 54 PAR @ 12" and 24 PAR@ 24 inches.

    Flora: Entire exposed substrate heavily planted with C. Parva. Fissidens Fontanus in the rockwork.

    Fauna: OEBTs, eventually (after I feel that the tank is matured enough). Will have some Amanos temporarily after cycle completes to help with algae issues should they arise.

    Flora choice is for low maintenance but attractive. Want the Parva to eventually be a dense carpet.

    Will be doing tap water with RO for topoffs, most likely.

    So, my questions:

    Anyone want to suggest a height for the light and a photoperiod? I'm guesstimating somewhere around 16 inches off the substrate would be best?

    Does anyone want to suggest a dosing regime? Would like to keep it simple, and I do not want to use a micro combo that has any copper in it, so that gets rid of most of the popular choices.

    Thanks in advance!

    -Larcat
     
    #1 larcat, Jul 26, 2012
  2. dutchy

    dutchy Plant Guru Team
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    My experience with non CO2 tanks tell me that only low light will make it succesfull (without algae). I wouldn't go higher with the PAR than 30 umols with no more than an 8 hour photoperiod. That would be around 21 inch with your lights. Low light will also guarantee you low maintainance and crypts can do will with this amount of light.

    Non CO2 tanks allow very minimal dosing when there are no water changes, sometimes just feeding the fish can provide NO3 and PO4 and you just add traces according to the manual. I'd start with around 20 ppm of NO3 and 2 ppm of PO4 and see where it goes with a test kit. The actual value is not important as long as it's not zero. When you know the final nutrients consumption of the tank, you just add this regularly and you can stop using the test kit.
     
    #2 dutchy, Jul 27, 2012
  3. larcat

    larcat Junior Poster

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    Thanks for the response.

    I'm a little skeptical about marinelands #s. Doubling the distance should degrade the amount of light by more than 50%, I would think. Does this have something to do with LEDs?

    Wouldn't suggest adding traces?

    Regards,

    -Larcat
     
    #3 larcat, Jul 27, 2012
  4. Whiskey

    Whiskey Member

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    Another thing I've found to be helpful at keeping algae at bay in a low light tank is some kind of emergent growth such as duckweed on the surface of the tank. I'm not sure if this is because it lowers the light in the tank, or because it grows faster having access to the CO2 in the air keeping nutreants in check but either way I've had best luck with low tech tanks including some floating plants.

    Whiskey
     
    #4 Whiskey, Jul 27, 2012
  5. dutchy

    dutchy Plant Guru Team
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    My PAR meter tells me that for every 4 inch extra height of the fixture the PAR reduces around 10 micromol.
     
    #5 dutchy, Jul 27, 2012
  6. larcat

    larcat Junior Poster

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    So with this kind of fixture it is linear?

    Hrm. Idon'tgettit. But thanks!
     
    #6 larcat, Jul 27, 2012
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