Lighting for Brackish

[gsolman6]

I was looking to get a 2nd tank soon to go along with my community FW.
I really like having live plants so I was thinking of getting a 48" 130w fixture for my 55 gallon. I think the 2.36 watts per gallon should be adequate and I'm aware that my selection limited as far as plant species is concerned.

I have choices between:

- square or straight pin bulb (straight pin bulb seem to be less expensive to replace from smith and foster)

- "50/50" or 6700 bulbs

- option of lunar lights

The brand names are Satellite and Coralife.

Any suggestions?

[Pufferpunk]

since your post is in the BW forum, I'm assuming this is for a BW tank? There aren't really many plants that do well in BW & none that do well in a SG of >1.005. What fish were you planning on putting in there?

Here's my high-end BW tank:


You can see my low-end BW F8 tank by following the link in my sig.

[Myaj]

I have the corallife fixture and really like it, if that matters at all.

[gsolman6]

I was planning to do 1 or 2 F8s plus 1 other species in a 1.005 SG 55 gallon tank.

I have some patience and don't mind trying a bunch of plants until I find the ones that work. I also don't mind doing mail order to augment my LFS selection.

plantgeek.net list 32 species as 'brackish adaptable' but I wonder if they are being too optimistic.

[OraLacerta]

One of our knowledgeable mentors, "nmonks", had some interesting input on the subject of BW plants. Basically in order for plants to live in BW they need all of their other needs met, such as lighting, substrate, nutrients, CO2.

Here's the link to the thread, he lists a lot of plant species that can live in BW if you set up your tank properly:
http://www.thepufferforum.com/forum/vie ... ght=#50835

[RTR]

I have had best luck with Val americana, which is extremely vigorous in FW and not too bad in light BW. It worked best for me to establish the tank and plants FW, then s_l_o_l_y raise the specific gravity - say 0.001 every 2-3 weeks. I used SW substrates.

[gsolman6]

I have had best luck with Val americana, which is extremely vigorous in FW and not too bad in light BW. It worked best for me to establish the tank and plants FW, then s_l_o_l_y raise the specific gravity - say 0.001 every 2-3 weeks. I used SW substrates.

Is that the only one you've had success with? Not knocking you I just want to know what I am up against. I have some laterite which I was going to use with gravel or sand but are you thinking that crushed coral or something like that would be more beneficial?

OraLacerta: that is a helpful link. I think I'm going to have to read up on it.

[RTR]

I did use laterite base layer when I set to breed Orage Chromides in BW, and that Val was the most vigorous of the plants there. Java Moss survived, but did not grow at its normal rate in my FW tanks - which may be an advantage.

If I were doing it now, I would use OE-RFUG with aragonite or crushed coral and skip the nutrient base as un-needed.

Those tanks became F-8 tanks later, as did many of my tanks in that period.

Java Fern did survive but not thrive. I have not tried any Crinums or Cryptocorynes, and I do not do stem plants (personal quirk).

[Fugu]

I've had the same experience as RTR. The Val Ameri is the only thing that has "thrived" in my BW tank, and it's had its ups and downs. The java ferns I've haven't done as well.. they grow but tend to damage and die easily so the bulk of them end up budding off and remain in the baby stage.

I have a crushed coral base and supliment with some liquid plant fertiliser.

[puffergeek]

You want the 6700k bulbs. I actually have both brands of lights on different tanks... they are both fine IME. I don't actually use my lunar lights, but some people like them. (I've never heard of them causing problems or being a benefit... AFAIK they are purely cosmetic.)

I've also gotten vals to work in light brackish and also had java ferns and some java moss that was growing glacially... not fast enough to really help water quality but they looked nice.

I took two months to get up to 1.003 SG and everything was doing well. I then moved my F8 to her new home and she suddenly became a hole-punch with fins. I eventually had to move the plants out since they were more holes than leaves and were starting to die.

I was very bummed but I had to replace all of the plants with the plastic variety. I was cleaning little round bits of plants out of the filter for weeks afterwards! (I moved the surviving plants into my freshwater dwarf puffer tank.)

Some people have had more luck (and better behaved puffers) than me, so if you want to try, go for it!

[RTR]

I did learn to distinguish between the holes caused by clown loaches eating snails and puffers eating snails - if on a plant, the plant suffer half-round to fully-round holes from puffers, Y-shaped or V-shaped holes from clowns...