Why turn up the lights?

[scottward]

Hi. I have 8 x 30 watt T8 tubes over my 100 gallon tank .

At the moment, I only have 2 rows turned on, so only 120 watts.

I am dosing 1/2 EI for this sized tank and am working on good CO2 distribution.

Generally, things are doing well. I have a few minor issues which I think are CO2 related, and I'm ok with that, as that's where I'm focussing.

Once I have these CO2 issues sorted out, I'm wondering why I would ever bother to turn the lights up?

Turning the lights up is only going to accelerate everything, meaning higher CO2 demand, thus I'm going to chew through the stuff faster, growth will be faster meaning a lot more trimming etc etc.

Assuming that the plant growth never gets so thick that light penetration becomes an issue, is there any reason why I *have* to turn all the lights on?

Scott.

 

[Gerryd]

Hi Scott,

There is no need to increase the lighting if you like what you have and the growth rates........

As you state, it is just more nutes and c02 and work to increase the light.

Good for you to reject the 'need' for higher light when all is going well.

 

[Tom Barr]

I'd say it depends on your goal at the time.
You might want to intensively garden, and get some very nice healthy clean stem groups, very dense etc.

Then back off.

You might want to try and get some different coloration or form in some species, higher rates of growth so you can sell certain species, or have them fill in, then back off.

Regards,
Tom Barr

 

[scottward]

Cool. Thanks guys, this is what I was hoping you would say.

At the moment with 2 little kids and not a lot of spare time, I'm happy with the slow-everything-down approach! ;-)

Scott.

 

[pillow]

> is there any reason why I *have* to turn all the lights on?

No. Rig them so you can turn on a few as well as them all then
you have a "vacation setting". Turn down the CO2 and nutes
if you use less light.

Pil