mr. bojangsjang
New member
what WPG should seagrass have? 6700K/full spectrum is ideal right right?
WPG seagrass
- Thread starter mr. bojangsjang
- Start date
Travis L. Stevens
Active member
WPG? Do you mean watts per gallon? Like corals, it's more of a matter of light intensity. How deep is your tank? Also 5500K-6500K yields some of the best algae and plant growth. 6500K-10,000K is best for coral growth, but not color. The higher the Kelvin rating, the better it is for coral color, but at a price for growth.
piercho
New member
I have seen grass growing in areas of my tank with reduced lighting intensity, but generally it puts out more shoots in areas of higher light intensity. I think you'd be hard-pressed to over-illuminate the tank for most grass.
For daylight-spectra bulbs, my advice would be as follows:
up to 16", bulb to sandbed, VHO, PC, or T5.
16" to 30", 150W or 250W MH. Flourescent, especially T5 in engineered parabolic reflectors, will likely still work for some grass.
>30", 400W MH.
The above assumes an engineered, parabolic reflector is used. Intensity at depth will vary a lot dependant on the characteristics of the reflector. Bulbs with good overall intensity, measured as PAR, are preferred. "Daylight" bulbs with a spread spectrum and good red/blue balance are also preferred for grass, IMO. The EYE Color Arc or Color Ace bulbs at 6500K CCT, 90+ CRI, are what I would consider a very good bulb for grass. In the hobby, these are called Iwasaki 6500K. As implied above, MH bulbs with higher blue content tend to be weaker than daylight bulbs and loose intensity faster. 10KK MH bulbs can be fairly intense, but most of that output is usually in the violet spectra. Sanjay's Reef Lighting Site can be a useful source for selecting MH bulbs. Searching the web for Sanjay Joshi should get you to some articles about performance of MH reflectors.
For daylight-spectra bulbs, my advice would be as follows:
up to 16", bulb to sandbed, VHO, PC, or T5.
16" to 30", 150W or 250W MH. Flourescent, especially T5 in engineered parabolic reflectors, will likely still work for some grass.
>30", 400W MH.
The above assumes an engineered, parabolic reflector is used. Intensity at depth will vary a lot dependant on the characteristics of the reflector. Bulbs with good overall intensity, measured as PAR, are preferred. "Daylight" bulbs with a spread spectrum and good red/blue balance are also preferred for grass, IMO. The EYE Color Arc or Color Ace bulbs at 6500K CCT, 90+ CRI, are what I would consider a very good bulb for grass. In the hobby, these are called Iwasaki 6500K. As implied above, MH bulbs with higher blue content tend to be weaker than daylight bulbs and loose intensity faster. 10KK MH bulbs can be fairly intense, but most of that output is usually in the violet spectra. Sanjay's Reef Lighting Site can be a useful source for selecting MH bulbs. Searching the web for Sanjay Joshi should get you to some articles about performance of MH reflectors.
