# 6x39w T5HO Freshwater too much?



## Ajaxandrew (Jan 8, 2015)

Hello
I recently upgraded my double 39w fixture to a quadruple, it produces beautiful results in both growth and aesthetics. Then I got to thinking why not run both? They stay on about 12 hours a day.
And I have been doing that on my 65g 24" deep tank for a month now. Lately however my plants, especially pogostemon-helferi and Val's have lost their once vibrant green and and yellowing/browning, I'm wondering if it's too much light? The tank is co2 injected and the substrate is flourite capped topsoil (the tank was supposed to be a Walstad but I couldn't cope with the low maintainence). The other thing I'm wondering is if I should start fertilizing given the high light and resulting growth, surely the topsoil can't provide for everything? I will Prob try EI dosing with dry Ferts once I figure out where to buy it. Also noticing a lot of new algae growth on vals closer to the top near the bulbs (six inches).
Any thoughts or advice or input is appreciated.

Thanks
Andrew


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## cb1021 (Sep 21, 2009)

There's many things that need to balance in a planted aquarium. When you increase your lighting, that means the plants require more nutrients because the level of light has increased. I'm talking about Liebig's law of the minimum. The browning you see from your Helferi and Vals could be an indicator of insufficient nutrients.

Running high light tanks opens up a new avenue - it's quite different than running a low light tank (as you had previously). Take a read up on "The EI Concept explained".

I think you can run 6 x 39 watt over a 24" tank, but you need to make sure your co2 keeps up. If you don't have enough co2 (30ppm), you will get algae. If you have enough co2 but not enough nutrients, you will get poor growth.

In terms of fertilizing, dry ferts is the way to go. I bought my dry ferts from http://www.canadianaquatics.com/ the pricing is very good.


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## arturo (Jun 29, 2014)

im running 6 bulbs on my tank. Mind you, i only run them at 100% for 4hrs. I have good balance and a good cleanup crew, but sometimes a tiny bit of algae makes an appearance. nothing a water change cant fix.


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