# Amount of Light



## KyleT (Jul 22, 2002)

Hi morepower16, welcome to the board!

The 3 watts/gallon is just a general rule that really has no use. 

It all depends on your set up, your substrate, if you are adding CO2 and if you plan on adding any type of fertilizers. With these questions answered I will be able to provide a much better answer! 

What type of plants do you plan on having?

You only need to have however much light you need over the area that you have plants. However it is good to have around the same amount of light on the rest of the tank for your fish sake!!! 

Kyle


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## morepower16 (Aug 5, 2002)

Like I said the tank is a 125Gal with a wet/dry and a magnum 350 filtering it. The substrate is flourite with a layer of gravel over top. The plants are mainly Amozon Swords with some java fern mixed in.


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## KyleT (Jul 22, 2002)

> _Originally posted by morepower16_
> Like I said the tank is a 125Gal with a wet/dry and a magnum 350 filtering it. The substrate is flourite with a layer of gravel over top. The plants are mainly Amozon Swords with some java fern mixed in.


HEHE! Lovely mixture. A plant that will do fine with next to no light and a plant that loves lots of light!!!

I would go for around 2.5 watts/gallon then. Your swords should be fine and your ferns will love it. 

Check out the fertilizers article and scroll down to plant spikes. You might want to eventually add these to the roots of your swords as they are heavy root feeders. 

What type of lighting are you planning on putting over your tank?

Kyle


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## morepower16 (Aug 5, 2002)

Right now I have been trying to get by with numerous flourcents but have just placed an order for the 55 watt compact flourcent tubs. Getting a double fixture to start out with and will add more as money allows. I was not sure I would need more fertilizers since I use the flourite. I do know the Swords require lots of lite though. I don't want to light the entire tank, just half as I like the look of a partially shaded tank.


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## Pooky125 (Jul 30, 2002)

Hmm, I have 3 Ozelot sword, that are all doing fabulously under 1.5-2 watts per gallon.. Growning a new leaf ever 3 days or so...


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## Steve Hampton (Jul 22, 2002)

Pooky125 Wrote:



> I have 3 Ozelot sword, that are all doing fabulously under 1.5-2 watts per gallon.. Growning a new leaf ever 3 days or so


This brings up a really interesting point about plants and lighting. A lot of plants have very different "looks" and grow differently depending on whether they receive low light or high light. Most sword under low light conditions will grow much small leaves, both in height and width. They also grow more leaves and stay bunched together tighter. Under high light the same sword may produce leaves that are 3X wider and taller. Also, growing new leaves much less frequently and with larger spead between the leaves. Swords are but one example of the different "looks" that the same plant will produce under different lighting conditions. Sorry, this really doesn't have much to do with the original question. I have, in the past, created the light/dark sided tank like you're proposing. It can be quite dramatic. There are two ways to acheive this look. One is to simply arrange the light to one side. The other way, and the one I prefer, is to grow Giant Vals and/or floating plants like Frogbit on one side blocking the light and creating a canopy effect. Using Frogbit has an additional advantage in that is sucks up lots of NO3.


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