Quote:
Originally Posted by Mooner
It's not the watts per gallon that is a concern, it is the type of lighting. T5 and AH PC's with reflectors put out a lot of light. Generally, you are looking for T12 to T8 lighting over non carbon setups. Your current lighting would do well over an Excel type setup but would still require water changes, maybe bi monthly.
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Here is where my inherent laziness is helping out. The glass cover on the tank is very water spotted and the bulbs are at least 5 years old. Those 2 factors must be dimming the light enough that the plants are growing quite well and algae is minimal. In fact the only algae is some green spot on the anubias' leaves and some on the glass. And the algae on the glass is slowly being eliminated by a horde of snails. I had been going to get some clown plecos to help with the algae and general clean up, but if I do now I'll need to feed them.
I've had enough success with this technique that I'm tempted to try it on my 150 gallon pond. How do you calculate the watts per gallon for a pond that is outside in the shade of a tree?
I wonder if adding some equilibrium and phosphate would be good for the plants in the pond. I think less nitrate would be needed as there is enough debris in the form of leaves and plant matter to provide some of that.
What do you think? Would a form of this technique work in a pond?