# Plants & lighting



## joevc1 (Dec 17, 2007)

I've been thinking of adding some plants to my 125g African setup. 22 inches tall.



















I have a DIY light with SIX 9w-CF-Daylight bulbs in the 5500k range, which is the equivalent of 240 watts. I was thinking of starting out with some Java Fern and see it it will work.

In years past I never had any luck with plants and this is the first time I'll try with this kind of setup.
Do I have a chance with this? What could I do to be more successful? I don't want to get into CO2 or anything like that, which is why I'll try the Java first.


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## zazz (Apr 5, 2008)

love the rockwork....i also considered plants and may well do in the future but for the time being i went with high quality fake just to get down the aggresion issues at present. i read somewhere but i cant recall what it was but there is a plant that is rootless and just floats and is great for cichlids..maybe somone could fill me in on that one.


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## kornphlake (Feb 12, 2004)

You should be able to grow java fern, or at least keep it alive, it tends to be pretty slow growing but it will survive just about any where. You could also try some java moss, it seems to survive anything as well, although it can be more difficult to find. Cryptocorynes are easy to keep alive, but they'll need to be rooted in the substrate which may be a problem if your fish like to dig a lot. I've seen people put them in pots which seems to keep them in place but often ends up in a pot that isn't covered with sand.


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## 3569Ryan (Jul 8, 2008)

You could get more light out of your setup if you painted the inside of your hood white. also 6 lamps with 9 watts each is only 54 watts. most of what I've read says 1 or 2 watts per gallon for plants, but I don't know the demands of java fern and the rock work looks real nice.


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## joevc1 (Dec 17, 2007)

opps


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## joevc1 (Dec 17, 2007)

3569Ryan said:


> You could get more light out of your setup if you painted the inside of your hood white.


The light has mylar attached (not shown in the photo)

The CF bulbs, although only 9w, put out 40 or 60w of light each, I forget what the package said so I estimated on the low side.


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## macclellan (Nov 30, 2006)

No one measures aquarium lighting in Incandescent watts. Don't fool yourself into thinking for a second that having "240w worth" of light on a 22" tall 125g tank is going to grow plants.

You have 54w of spiral compacts, which lose a lot of light due to restrike (curved bulbs) and you don't have a proper reflector. I don't think you'll have any real success with any plants, except maybe java fern and moss, as kornphlake says. You'll at least want to double if not triple the current number of spiral compacts. Note how expensive the "cheap DIY" project starts becoming. You'll want to look into a proper fixture if you want to grow plants. I started DIY too (shoplights) and all that resulted in was wasted money and time. There's a great expression in spanish "ser barato te sale caro' ~ being cheap is expensive.

Sorry if that's harsh; the truth is that way sometimes.


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## zazz (Apr 5, 2008)

harsh is good!! :thumb:


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## Number6 (Mar 13, 2003)

macclellan said:


> Note how expensive the "cheap DIY" project starts becoming. You'll want to look into a proper fixture if you want to grow plants. I started DIY too (shoplights) and all that resulted in was wasted money and time.


 and just wait until you have to shell out the money to replace all those spiral bulbs again and again... it adds up.

Now I have done some cheap DIY light fixtures using overdriven normal output T8s, so not all DIY light fixtures need to cost a fortune. BUT... I've found a used light and a new bulb actually works out cheaper than any DIY light fixture so in a way Maclellan is bang on. 
DIY lighting is just not too bright! pardon the pun


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