# Standard 125 Gallon Tank



## Questin (Sep 30, 2007)

I have your standard 125 gallon tank, 6 foot long monster. I have been doing plants in this tank for about 4 years now, but nothing too demanding. Things that have done great over the years in this tank are Anubias, Tiger Lotus, Bacopa, and some onion plants.

Currently there are 220 watts of power compacts on this tank and this has been enough light to make everything in this tank grow well, and I have seen all the bulb go thru propagation. The onion plant has gone from 1 bulb to 4. The Tiger Lotus has gone from 2 bulbs to 20. The Bacopa has always just gotten by, but has always grown the full height of the tank. The Anubias has done wonderful, I have more then tripled in that area.

But I would like to get something more out of the tank, and that means putting in more plants. The main plant I am concerned about is Glosso. I have added this to my tank, but it is not staying close to the ground. From my understanding, this is due to the lack of light it is getting, and I would like to know what type of light I should be trying to give this little plant. I have also put in some Anubias Nana and then some Brazilian Pennywort. But out of all of this I think the Glosso is the must demanding.

A little about my current lighting I should tell you about is that the bulbs are 10,000k because I am a reef guy, so I was just use to getting 10,000k for that. Would a change in the bulbs to 6,500k be all that I need to help the Glosso stay grounded? That certainly would be the easiest thing to do, and I do think that the growth of the plants have been slower since I have put those bulbs in.

I also have an opportunity to get a hold of a Coralife Aqualight Pro Retrofit Kit. This would be 834 watts of light. 3-150 watt HQI and 4-96 watt power compacts. Does that add up to overkill for a planted tank? And if not, the current lights in this setup are the wrong spectrum, but would they work for half a year? The HQI bulbs are 14,000ks and the power compacts are the 50/50s (50% 6000°K natural daylight and 50% Actinic 03 blue)

What do you think?


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## longhornxtreme (Feb 20, 2007)

Those bulbs are more for a reef setup than a freshwater planted setup. You really don't want to go higher than 10,000K or lower than 5,500K for your plant growing lights.


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## BryceM (Nov 6, 2005)

My biggest question isn't the amount of light you currently have, but it's quality. Are the bulbs relatively new? Do you use good-quality reflectors? If so, 220W should be plenty for a 125g tank. Lots of people grow nice plants with 10,000K bulbs. I don't think changing the bulb spectrum alone will make that much of a difference. You'll get more "bang for your buck" if you concentrate instead on providing good levels of CO2. This tends to be the Achilles heel of many larger tanks.


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## taekwondodo (Dec 14, 2005)

I got a 125 a few weeks ago - been thinking about 4x75W DIY MH.

And I know what you mean about the 10K/Reef - I've got a reef too and I just can't bear to look at my tank (planted) with anything under 10K - too yellow once you're used to the brighter "white".

Good luck and keep us posted.

- Jeff


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## Questin (Sep 30, 2007)

The bulbs I now have are new, about 2 months old. The reflectors are what was built into the All-Glass 36 inch 110 watt power compact units, so I honestly don't know how those compair to what else is out there, but they seem to be pretty good.

The CO2 seems to be fine. I have a 5 pound bottle of CO2 doing something like 8 bps, but when it gets to that much a second, I can not really count it. I did buy that big Beetle Counter from ADA, and all I can say about that is that it is full of bubbles. I have a ReaSea drop checker, and it is getting in the green.

The only big change that tank has seen in a while is I went from a Magnum 350 Deluxe Canister filter to a Hagen Fluval FX5 Canister filter. But I am sure the added flow is only a plus.


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