saltwater light fixture ok for freshwater plants?

dereks

dereks

AC Members
Mar 7, 2006
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I wanna use this salt water light fixture I have laying around for a freshwater plant tank. I don't know what it is, nothing crazy like a halide or anything, just a small 18 watt light. One side looks like an actinic and the other looks like a grow bulb. Anyway, think it'll get the job done? All we're doing is adding spare fixtures to a 15 gallon tank to get this java fern going real nicely before we add it to a dimmer piranha tank.

There will be no fish in the tank so I can kee the temp down a bit, correct? No fish also means more ferts and CO2, correct?
 
The actinic won't do any good, I would replace it.

For freshwater planted tanks the ideal light range for plants is 5500-10000k. But ideally you want bulbs that are around 6700k. If you can't find the k rating on the bulbs just go for florescent bulbs that say daylight on them as these are usually around 6700k.
 
actinic lighting isnt going to do much for plant growth and ive read about somebody who read about somebody who reported that actinics grow algae in fw, that being said, i wouldnt buy that.
the actinic part of it emits light usually about 410-430 nm which is a very unnatural spectrum for plants or even algae to get in the wild. i think that it might contribute to algae slightly but the 10k will be enough to grow your java fern with.

dont go overkill with co2 or ferts it will still kill your plants. that being said, you can dose seltzer water, not too much, with good results and no harm done by the swinging ph.
 
DoctaQ said:
actinic lighting isnt going to do much for plant growth and ive read about somebody who read about somebody who reported that actinics grow algae in fw, that being said, i wouldnt buy that.
the actinic part of it emits light usually about 410-430 nm which is a very unnatural spectrum for plants or even algae to get in the wild. i think that it might contribute to algae slightly but the 10k will be enough to grow your java fern with.

dont go overkill with co2 or ferts it will still kill your plants. that being said, you can dose seltzer water, not too much, with good results and no harm done by the swinging ph.
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You'd have to go pretty far overboard to do that with either...
 
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