# a foolproof way to check lightening



## plantplanter (Jul 7, 2012)

if you see bubbles on this turf 3 hours after the lights are turned on, you know your lightening is ok.


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## niko (Jan 28, 2004)

And if you try harder you can get bubbles about 5 minutes after you turn the lights on.

Also you can play with the amount of the bubbles by changing the intensity of the light. It is possible to make the plants bubble so heavily that the entire aquarium looks like it's boiling. It is not a pretty sight, mind you. And no need to force the plants to grow that fast.

Other than that - welcome to the world of itsy-bitsy Oxygen bubble lovers. The first person to notice and describe them wrote a book about aquarium plants. Somewhere in 1920. Yes, 1920.


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## plantplanter (Jul 7, 2012)

Niko: You're right there, but I'm not just a lover of bubbles. My purpose is to observe the bubbing of this plant to watch for the conditions in the tank rather than trifling with the technicality of lighting. It can be very confusing if you care too much about what the textbooks say about lighting. For me, it's simple. Watch this one bubble (no idea of its English name. I call it "the the easy bubbler", for it is always the first one to do so. As long as it bubbles, not too early, not too much, it seems to tell me that the conditions in the tank are ideal for most plants. In other words there is no need to worry or take any actions.


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## Aquat (Feb 1, 2012)

What's the "turf" made out of? Riccia?


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