# How much hrs of light for Amazonsword?



## jesterx626 (Jul 27, 2005)

using a 20watt fluorescent strip or bulb or whatever, in a 30 gal.

any input or a link would be fine, thanks alot


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## TheCalling (Jul 24, 2005)

First I would say you need more watts. I have 80 on my 55 for 14 hours. It's on a timer so it's the same everynight. I'm going up to 160 watts soon so I would say you should have maybe 60 at least.


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## DiPpY eGgS (Mar 6, 2005)

Ya, you need more light. 60 would be very nice for the sword plant. BTW, I have heard from very reliable sources that anything over 12 hrs of light over a plant is useless. Just trying to help


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## Gumby (Aug 13, 2004)

Yeah, I run my tanks on a 12 hour cycle. I've found that anything over that just creates more algae problems.


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## jesterx626 (Jul 27, 2005)

I dont know...my 20watt bulb was enough to give my amazon sword brown algae all over.

If i increased the watts does it get bright or...?


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## Husky_Jim (May 26, 2003)

First of all i go also with the 12 hour prinsiple.

Regarding algae now you have to tell us exactly the type of your bulb (how many kelvins...) in order to be able to tell exactly.


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## jesterx626 (Jul 27, 2005)

how do i find out the kelvins?


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## DiPpY eGgS (Mar 6, 2005)

It should say somewhere on the bulb itself, or the box it came in, but usually right on the bulb


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## jesterx626 (Jul 27, 2005)

eh strange, doesnt say the kelvins on the bulb, or the box it came in.

well i do know the name of the bulb that the box came in, Marine-Glo by Actinic Spectrum if thats helps.


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## spree_rider (Mar 20, 2004)

Actinic light is for salt water aquariums and doesnt grow plants very well but grows brown algea fine, and u definatly will need more wpg, 60watt total would work, just go to hardware store buy some more lights and hang them over your tank. any light will do but plant bulbs will work the best.


jesterx626 said:


> eh strange, doesnt say the kelvins on the bulb, or the box it came in.
> 
> well i do know the name of the bulb that the box came in, Marine-Glo by Actinic Spectrum if thats helps.
> [snapback]1140317[/snapback]​


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## DiPpY eGgS (Mar 6, 2005)

spree_rider said:


> Actinic light is for salt water aquariums and doesnt grow plants very well but grows brown algea fine, and u definatly will need more wpg, 60watt total would work, just go to hardware store buy some more lights and hang them over your tank. any light will do but plant bulbs will work the best.
> 
> 
> jesterx626 said:
> ...


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## jesterx626 (Jul 27, 2005)

oh sw lightbulb huh? hrm. Well i like it, the blueish glow shines on my white gravel and makes my tank look pretty. The fish adjust to the light pretty quickly, after a 30 sec frenzy of shooting themselves all over the tank and then calm down lol.


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## hyphen (Apr 4, 2004)

i'm under the impression that watts per gallon is outdated and no longer as applicable. power compact, t5, and metal halide lights have different outputs for the amount of watts they use. and power compacts, for instance, are made to conserve energy but output a good spectrum.

you should base your lighting on the amount of kelvin that the bulb produces along with the depth of water it has to penetrate.


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## elTwitcho (Jun 22, 2004)

hyphen said:


> i'm under the impression that watts per gallon is outdated and no longer as applicable. power compact, t5, and metal halide lights have different outputs for the amount of watts they use. and power compacts, for instance, are made to conserve energy but output a good spectrum.
> 
> you should base your lighting on the amount of kelvin that the bulb produces along with the depth of water it has to penetrate.
> [snapback]1143173[/snapback]​


Kelvin is temperature, not intensity and depth of water doesn't also take into account actual light coverage. Watts per gallon isn't the best measure out there but it's the most accurate basis available to the common hobbyist. Using just kelvin and depth of water does not take into account the intensity of light which is more important than just depth or temperature (in most cases).

I would go with 60 watts of light and that should put you in the correct range for your plants.


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## jesterx626 (Jul 27, 2005)

thanks for alot for everybodys input.


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## hyphen (Apr 4, 2004)

elTwitcho said:


> hyphen said:
> 
> 
> > i'm under the impression that watts per gallon is outdated and no longer as applicable. power compact, t5, and metal halide lights have different outputs for the amount of watts they use. and power compacts, for instance, are made to conserve energy but output a good spectrum.
> ...


kelvin is temperature, but kelvin ratings go up in number for a reason. you're not going to get equal intensity from a 5000k bulb as a 20000k bulb. and with more intense bulbs you generally get a wider spectrum of light.

let me give you an example:

this my 60g tank lit under 2x 15 watt fluorescent bulbs. no kelvin rating.









this is my 60g tank lit under just 1 of my 65w (500w output) compact fluorescent rated @ 6500k. the range of spectrum is wider and as such, it's much more intense. more intensity means deeper penetration (as you can see from the illumination of the sand).








(the lights are now mounted to the wall to better diffuse the light)

if you used the watts per gallon equation you would probably range around 2-3 wpg for planted tanks. with that equation, i would need about 200 watts for a 100g tank. putting 10x 20w fluorescent fixtures above my tank isn't going to work very well. because no matter how many lights i put on top of the tank, the light isn't going to be strong enough to penetrate to the bottom. light doesn't combine forces to penetrate. but, 1x 90w T5 (ho fluorescent) would work somewhat well because of the lighting intensity (would have a higher kelvin rating).

also, the watts per gallon isn't going to take into account light coverage either. just like people don't like using the inch-per-gallon fish rule, i really dislike using the wpg "rule" :/


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## elTwitcho (Jun 22, 2004)

hyphen said:


> kelvin is temperature, but kelvin ratings go up in number for a reason. you're not going to get equal intensity from a 5000k bulb as a 20000k bulb. and with more intense bulbs you generally get a wider spectrum of light.
> [snapback]1143698[/snapback]​


Kelvin ratings go up because the color temperature goes up. Intensity and color temperature are two non related things, and a 5000K bulb, a 3000K bulb or a 20000K bulb will all give off the same amount of light, one may appear brighter to you because the human eye is most sensitive to light in the green spectrum and one may have more than the other, but two lights of the same type at the same wattage will produce the same intensity of output. It's basic physics, having a higher temperature rating isn't going to magically produce more light while running at the same wattage, it's called the law of conservation of energy.

And besides that, like I said. Color temperature is color temperature. Intensity is intensity. They are not the same thing, nor are they related.


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## hyphen (Apr 4, 2004)

elTwitcho said:


> hyphen said:
> 
> 
> > kelvin is temperature, but kelvin ratings go up in number for a reason. you're not going to get equal intensity from a 5000k bulb as a 20000k bulb. and with more intense bulbs you generally get a wider spectrum of light.
> ...


and color temperature goes up why? you're saying that a regular 20watt bulb with a 10000k rating is going to give off the same amount of light as 50watt bulb @ 20000k? if stand 300 feet away, you're saying that one bulb isn't going to be brighter than the other? they use watts, if one requires more watts than the other, it's obviously going to be giving off more light (unless we're going backwards in technology and efficiency).

and in regards to producing more & the conservation of energy law, you misread what i wrote. i said that higher kelvin rated bulbs generally give a broader spectrum of light. i never said that the bulbs have to be equal in wattage. which is why i said that a 90w high output fluorescent would be more practical than 10 fluorescent fixtures.


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## elTwitcho (Jun 22, 2004)

hyphen said:


> elTwitcho said:
> 
> 
> > hyphen said:
> ...


No, it will be brighter because the WATTAGE is higher, the intensity has nothing to do with the color temperature rating.


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