light planted tank

now that i got my tank planted with a few of the plants i want . which include bleheri, water primrose, dracaena, spathiphyllum, ophiopogon, trihomanes,syngonium, and some cardinal plant that im trying to get to carpet which is starting to carpet really really fast under extremely low light . the swords are starting to melt a bit thinking about dosing some flourish excel to help out the co2 part of it and some root tabs also something to help leaf regrowth and i know my lighting is really low due to the fact i have a marineland double led as lighting but i feel i need to seriously upgrade if im going to keep this carpet growing and keep these plants alive so im thinking of upgrading to a aquaticlife double t5 ho fixture hows that sound?

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Comment by Tom Talamantes on August 6, 2014 at 2:49am: You should definitely run a dirted tank for all those plants, are you? And you don't need a whole lot of watts per gallon, you can get away with 1 watt per gallon easy (pink lights are the best for plants though if you want to switch out the bulbs). Also, maybe you're lighting them too much, all they really need is 6 hours a day. During the night they actually release CO2, so I think the best thing is to try and get some balance, also maybe thing about throwing some duck weed in there, that really helped balance my tank. Hope this helps.

Comment by john walden on August 6, 2014 at 7:07am: Im not running a dirted tank right now i have black sand half inch and on top i have flourite black so far my cardinal plants have made a carpet so far across the front of my tank with me pinching off and replanting when i trim them. i have stopped using my co2 reg which i found a broken seal on it and the store i get my non refillable tanks from doesnt supply them any more . all my swords grew back after melting a little bit from planting them the first week the were in . everything in growing and flourishing well after i started dosing with a co2 booster. for lighting i still have the marineland , but i will feel really confident when i have a t5 or t8 that i think i will get from home depot or either walmart . thanks for the tips!

Comment by theeAQUATICattic on August 21, 2014 at 10:13pm: Im going to post a link to 2 videos so you can maybe go this way and just add t your led setup.

First video are LED flood lights that run can run out of a reptile light sheild that are like 10.99 ( I used these for one of my plant farm tanks!) they are about 30 dollars a bulb and last 27 years and have a warranty for like 5 years or somthing. Go with a daylight or bright white so you dont get the orange or yellow effect he has in the video! These are great light very high light! Cheaper than T5 - 8 systems and work way better.

http://youtu.be/To1FkOA0lgM

The next video is a very similar set up they are flood lights for outside already wired an you can just mount. Jflesh knows his shit and they have the same i think 6500ks of light per bulb and they are about 30 bucks each!

http://youtu.be/nGhWziY_zh0

Now this last video there are 2 parts to and this is what ive used on my 55 gallon and my 100 gallow heavily planted tanks!

http://youtu.be/MzVEmJy7yHY (watch part 2 for end results of led lights)

Dont wanna dis T5- or T8s but if ur going to go flouresent just get the phillips t-12 they work way better 4 foot s cost 12 bucks and grow plants like crazy.

Also I do better with LED its a cleaner brighter shimmering effect light, penetrates to the bottom of the tank for carpeting!

You will see the results in the JFLESH tanks DIY led light system how well these work!!

Cheers!