# To Much Light?



## yankee fan (Jul 26, 2010)

Hi,
Newb here. I have a question about my lighting. I have a 250 watt metal halide 10,000k light as my primary light over my 50 gal breeder at the moment. That gives me 5 watts per gal right there. my question is I had read somewhere that freshwater plants cant use actinic lighting. i like the way aquariums look with actinic supplementation . I have a t5 78 watt retro fit kit that I would like to add to my lighting . since the plants cant " see " the light would this add to my total watts per gal? I think 6.5 watts would be a liitle over kill.


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## NeonFlux (May 15, 2008)

That might be a little too much light, unless you have co2, ferts balanced out, and tons and tons of plants in your aquarium, it could work out with a lot of experimenting; although it's kinda uncommon for people to go over 3-4 wpg, but you could try it; some folks have managed to use 5 wpg and more I think, however I believe it's labor intensive because you have check the tank, test for stuff, water change; may not be worth your time to do all of those stuff, and just stick with 3 wpg if you can. Great luck.


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## papichancho (Sep 22, 2009)

i have a 72 watt light over my 10 gallon tank and i have never had any problems with it. my plants grow nicely and everything is fine in the tank. i do have alot of CO2...


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## Left C (Jun 14, 2005)

You can raise your lighting up higher to reduce the net PAR that the aquarium receives which effectively reduces your wpg, but you still have too much. Be sure to stay on top of your nutrients and you absolutely need pressurized CO2 with this much lighting. It is really too much as NeonFlux mentioned.

There are many pigments involved in freshwater plant photosynthesis. Some can use actinic lighting. See the graphs below.


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## yankee fan (Jul 26, 2010)

Thanks for the input. i think im just gonna use one bulb instead of both.


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## Left C (Jun 14, 2005)

Good idea! Do you have pressurized CO2, by the way?


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## yankee fan (Jul 26, 2010)

I have it coming in the mail. Ive had my tank set up for 2 weeks now and been dosing dry ferts and excel. very little alage so far


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