Light Intensity?

[Mr. Zee]

Hello folks:

I have a 55 gallon tetra/ram planted tank with a DIY CO2 generator and
2 65 Watt 6700K Coralife bulbs. Plant growth is ok, but some of the plants
seem to be 'reaching' for the light. Also they've taken on a bit of a
yellowish/light green hue, different then the nice dark green that they had
when I bought them. Would increasing the light to 2 96 Watt bulbs be the
thing to do? Water quality is good: pH 6.2, no nitrates, minimal nitrates
and a lot of phosphate which I deal with by 3 weekly water changes. I also
have Florite (sp?) gravel and use Seachem's Florish Excel and Trace. Thanks
for any info.

[Cheryl Rogers]

Mr. Zee wrote:
> Hello folks:
>
> I have a 55 gallon tetra/ram planted tank with a DIY CO2 generator and
> 2 65 Watt 6700K Coralife bulbs. Plant growth is ok, but some of the plants
> seem to be 'reaching' for the light.

At a little over 2 Watts per gallon, this is medium light and should be
fine for most plants.

Also they've taken on a bit of a
> yellowish/light green hue, different then the nice dark green that they had
> when I bought them. Would increasing the light to 2 96 Watt bulbs be the
> thing to do? Water quality is good: pH 6.2, no nitrates, minimal nitrates
> and a lot of phosphate which I deal with by 3 weekly water changes.

This may have more to do with the yellowing than light. If you have
limited nitrates, this can lead to yellow plants.

Why do you have so much phosphate? What else are you adding to the water?

I also
> have Florite (sp?) gravel and use Seachem's Florish Excel and Trace. Thanks
> for any info.

Iron deficiency can also lead to yellow plants. I find that in my
heavily planted tanks, the iron in Flourish is not enough so I also add
Seachem's Flourish Iron with a water change and one time during the week.

Check out the Krib: www.thekrib.com/Plants

Chuck Gadd also has a gfreat article on tracking down nutrient
deficiencies: http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/

Good luck!

Cheryl
www.aquatic-gardeners.org