I just did a 50 gallon planted tank with 4 x 21 watts T5 Coralife lights. There will be no CO2 injection. It has 2 Aquaclear HOB filters and about 16 small Tetras, 2 - 3 in Rainbowfish, 3 SAEs and 3 Otos. I wanted to take advantage of the mulm so I used Eco-complete on top of the old substrate. The plants are Vallisneria, Java fern, Hygrophila Corymbosa and Java moss.
What kind of fertilizers will I use for dosing? Do I just top off with tap water? I read in some posts that low light tanks should not have water changes.

I suggest you look up the EI recommended doses for that size tank, cut the amount in half, then dose half of that twice a week, alternating days dosing traces and the other ferts. If you don't add any CO2 it isn't a good idea to do weekly water changes, but changing half the water every few months would be helpful.

That's too much light.

I suggest W/gal rules but with specific non CO2 and smaller tanks, the issue becomes problematic, not so much because of teh rule per se, rather, the bubl types themselves have a wide range of PAR in these specific cases.

A 13w PC Azoo light over a 1.5 gal has than same light at 40 w PC over a 20 gal at 4" distance from the bulb(about 80 micromoles of light).

In non CO2 tanks, 1 watt/gal works well with T5's, 1.5 w or less with PC, and 1-2w with NO FL's.

The T5's here will be okay if you stagger them, 2 hours of full light for a midday effect (all 4 running) and 10 hours of 2 bulbs only.

You can run the lights more later.....
But you will need to add as many plants as you can from the initial stage.

This is critical to get off to a good foot without algae in any planted tank set up.

Given you fish choice, I'd suggest Amano shrimp, cherry shrimp etc in place of SAE's although one SAE might be added if needed.

No water changes, top off with tap.
For ferts: once a week should do fine, maybe 5-10 mls of TMG. 1/8 teaspoon of KNO3, a smidgeon of KH2PO4 and 1/8 teaspoon of Gh booster.

Dose just once a week, about once a month or so, back off the ferts and add only the TMG for that week and let the other nutrients drop.

That's about it and feed the fish routinely.

Regards,
Tom Barr

I thought of the staggered lighting you suggested but I just wanted to make sure I'm doing the right thing. As for the plants,I plan to add some Rotalas for fast growing plants. For now,I just added 5ml Flourish. Fish feeding is limited to 1x per day. Thanks for the advice.

BTW, one of the T5 bulbs is a Colormax full-spectrum paired with a 6700k. How does this Colormax T5 bulb work for plants?

Stealing the thread abit:

I get confused about what lightning, lightning is.
PC, NOFL etc.

NO FL is "normal flourescant like t8"?
PC..

NO = Normal Output fluorescent (can be T5, T6, T8, T10, T12 but normal output)

ODNO = Over-Driven Normal Output (hooking up a ballast in such as way as to over-drive the normal output bulbs, or by using a ballast such as an IceCap 430 or 660)

HO = High Output fluorescent (much of the T5 lighting being marketed in the hobby today is HO)

VHO = Very High Output fluorescent (these are T12 bulbs that run at 24"=75W, 36"=95W, etc.)

PC = Power Compact Fluorescent (this is basically a T5 lamp bent in half on itself; they come in both square-pin and linear-pin configurations)

MH = Metal Halide

Hope this clears up some of the confusion for you

-Jimbob

What is an example of GH booster? Seachem Equilibrium?

Here is an example: PMDD Store: Barr's GH Booster, Dry Aquatic Plant Fertilizers, which is a cheap version of Seachem Equilibrium, not exactly the same, but a lot cheaper.

The Colormax WILL produce more vibrant colors, and healthier growth in red plants. On the other hand they can also perpetuate BBA, but this is a non-issue with adequate Co2. They are a good supplement or augmentation to lighting in a planted tank, but only within reason. Like Garlic or Cummin "A Little Goes A Long Way" The red spectrum is easily overdone. HTH Prof M