# Bad LED or good T8 ?



## Raymond S. (Jan 11, 2013)

By comparing the charts for the LED light fixture I have and the chart for the T8 I had, I have begun to believe the T8 is slightly
better than the Marineland Double Bright LED.
It's been exactly 10 days since the BGA was killed in my tank. The plants suffered also for lack of light but none died.
But the Dwarf Sags have only one new leaf beginning and just 1/2" at that. None of the rest of them are showing ANY signs
of recovery yet. I'll wait a few hrs to see if I get a reply to this but I plan on changing the LED out for the original T8 that was
on the tank to begin/w to see if it will help just a bit/w the plants without being an algae trigger.
So what do you think ? Am I rushing it and perhaps should give it an additional week first ? I don't want/expect plants growing
out of the top of the tank by noon tomorrow. Just would like to see something in the way of growth at all. Don't want high tech.
Just a small amount of plant growth would be nice though.


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

Plants will show recovery much slower. They can go down hill really fast it always seems, like days, but then not get a full recovery until 2-4 wks later. Your plant is recovering, just nothing you can see yet. This can be true even for higher light/CO2 tanks, although CO2 can help with how fast they recover.


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## Raymond S. (Jan 11, 2013)

Was wondering if anyone had any experience they might share on this...thanks. I didn't know if 10 days was perhaps not enough time.
I know this tank isn't overfed as I can see my ram snail eating what remains of the bloodworms I feed to the Banded Pigmy sunfish(3) 
which are the only fish in there. They are about 1.25" and not on the AqAdvisor's list so I used Cherry Barbs and it says 58%/11% water
change per week. I usually do just over 20% every other week. 2G+one Qt out of 9 G(after deducting the gravel) tank.
Trying to keep this one as low tech as possible to encourage Daphnia growth.
I'm probably just looking for an excuse to go back to my T8 lighting. The way it radiates in all directions "fills" the tank/w light even
to the tops of every wall. LED's do have their advantages, but can't compare on that issue because of their downward directional
beams even/w the lenses on them.
But thanks jrman83 for letting me know it hasn't been long enough yet to expect from the plants.


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## lonedove55 (Jan 25, 2012)

Raymond, I've had the same or similar problem with a LED light (Amazon.com: Finnex FugeRay Aquarium LED Light Plus Moonlights, 20-Inch: Pet Supplies) I put on my 10 gallon for the last 4 months. Green hair algae, black beard algae (or what looks like it), and maybe even a little cyano. Today, I decided something had to be done about this yuck as it was completely covering the plant leaves. I removed all the plants (mostly anubias, 1 sword and some ludwigia) even the driftwood...soaked all in 50/50 peroxide water solution and put everything back. Hopefully, this will solve my problem....guess it's a waiting game to see if it comes back. I've had slight algae in that tank before I changed the lighting, mostly just green spots on the glass, but nothing compared to what this was.


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## hotwingz (Mar 3, 2013)

I have LED lights on all my tanks with plants and have excellent results. On my 56 column I have both LED and a T8 w/ a grow bulb to reach the plants on the ground. The LEDs offer a larger spectum of color without having to be as bright. Which on itself has plusses and minuses. On a tank that's not real deep the LEDs are perfect. And the spectrum also helps make your fish look nicer. But they don't usually have the strength to go deep.


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## royalspin (Oct 13, 2010)

Personally I would go back to the T8 or do a DYI LED set up .Ive seen what the big box suppliers are offering and the prices they charge for they're LED set ups and they're a joke.With a little know how, a soldering iron ,and some basic tools you can make your own and make it specifically for your own set up.It would also be a bit cheaper doing it yourself.There are many websites out there that have all the parts you need and many sites out there with full instructions plans etc that you don't have to pay for.I didn't happen to see what size tank you have or the depth.Depth is a important factor considering the light has to penetrate down to the bottom at a given strength or lumens for the plants you have.There are a ton of decent articles on the net on lighting and specifically LED lighting for fish tanks.Many decide to make they're own and have had good results because they got LED lights specifically for plant growth.You can even go with a combo set up which some people do with good results.From the looks of it you need more in the red end of the spectrum and not blue which is why you would get all that nasty algae growth.Hope some of the info helps.:fish5:*old dude


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## Raymond S. (Jan 11, 2013)

Actually I have two ten G's and I got rid of the Marineland Double Bright on one and went back to two T8's on it.
I've gotten fairly good at guessing which bulbs work on that combo...depth of tank + bulb brand/K rating.
The tank/w the T5 is being experimented on/w lights. It came/w two 6500K but at the same time I got a flora pink
called Roseated by the company I got it from. But also bought a true Lumen Flora bulb which the description of
said 6700K but looks pink when turned on and gives very true colors/w the 6500K. I switched out the 6500K
the other day for an actinic to see if the red plants(on which the new leaves which were coming out were green)
would get more red growth. An article I just read said that the 460nm was used more by red plants. Will leave it for 
about three weeks to see. I'm hesitant to use two 6500K's for fear of causing more algae. I actually want some
but not out of control growth of it. But I may switch to that if the actinic doesn't bring out more red in the red plants.
Don't know how it was grown but it was bright purple from top to bottom when bought but the new leaves are
coming out green/w a red border. Not enough light yes but which kind...


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## royalspin (Oct 13, 2010)

Sounds as though you know your lighting and specs.Thanks for the clarification.I would start looking at what type of gravel your using,filtration ,water quality,etc because it sounds as though your lighting is more than adequate considering the size of tank you have.I was thinking you had a deep tank and the light wasn't getting down far enough.Believe it or not I have a couple of ten gal tanks that I switched the incandescent bulbs out for 2CFL fluorescent bulbs and had gorgeous plant growth.They're 6500 k normal house bulbs not specifically for plants but they worked perfectly. I was amazed by the growth.I change the water pretty religiously so I didn't get any nasty alga issues.I'm using gravel that's commonly used for playgrounds.Through a little research I found the gravel is pretty high in iron which would attribute to the excellent growth.As for why the plant you mentioned had more purple and now isn't looking so hot.Keep in mind many of the plants we buy come from suppliers that either shipped them from they're original source or they grew them in green houses with real sunlight.Out of curiosity what species of plant is it that's not doing so well ? Ive also seen many pet stores selling what are really terrestrial or semi aquatic bog plants as aquatic.


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## Raymond S. (Jan 11, 2013)

Fairly sure it's the light as in not enough. Some farms use lights on the sides of the tanks also.
This is the plant and the add picture to see how it "might" look.
Aquatic Plants for Freshwater Aquariums: Rotala Magenta
And this is the one I have. Note the new growth on top which is green. Next to it is Rotala indica.


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## Raymond S. (Jan 11, 2013)

Progress report:
The T8 bulbs(having replaced the Marineland Double Bright) are likely not the only reason. But the Dwarf Sag's almost all have
new leaves after 4 days under the T8 lights now. But they must have been on-the-verg so to speak when I changed out the light.
Had a bit of a strange thing in the other ten G yesterday. Benn noticing for about three days that the new Rotala Magenta has stopped
growing. So I got on the side of the tank yesterday and found that the stems had rotted out. I must have broken them when 
planting them. So the top of the plants grew well at first but stopped three days ago. Replanted the three remaining ones so we'll
see what happens now. I mentioned it somewhere else that I changed out the 6500K generic bulb for an actinic @460nm.
Read an article which said that red plants use that color more than other plants so decided to give it three weeks of it.
Interesting that it has slowed the growth of the hair algae. I also noticed that this tank is only on 8 hrs and it's the closest I
have to high tech. Right the tank/w the T8 on for 9 hrs and the one/w the T5 on for 8. Well, said I'd give it three weeks so let it be.
If/when the plants actually get full in there I'll have less nutrients for the algae and it won't hurt to up the hrs. a bit.
Oops almost forgot that the objective in that one was to see which bulb combo gives the red plants the most red color.


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