seagrass tank lighting

[reefs4life1]

hello i am interested in turing my 29 gallon slatwater into a marine seagrass display. i have a couple of questions about whether this would work for me. my lighting is two 24 inch flourescant strip lights and i am not really sure what kind of bulbs i should buy and whether or not the 2 24 watt bulbs that fit into the strips will be sufficient for the seagrass? with the bulbs is it better to have a higher kelvin scale rating or a better wattage??? for sediment i am traveling to Florida U.S. later this week and was going to visit a local seagrass bed and scoop up some of the mud/sand and possibly pick up a few plants that have washed up onto the beach. would a 5 inch sand bed be enough??? and with the five inches decrease the water level and make the plants closer to the lights??? i waas hoping to have some star grass. paddle grass, and possibly i would really like some shoal or manatee grass if my lights will be enough???? and advice or citisism that might help??? anything is appreciated ! thanks!!!

 

[Anonymous]

:welcome:

To be honest I don't think that 50 watts of regular fluorescent will be enough light. Those grasses grow in the shallows. I would consider looking into getting a better lighting system, you'd need at least 120watts IMO.

 

[reefs4life1]

even for the star and paddle grasses i thought that they had lower light requierments???

 

[Anonymous]

I have turtle grass from PR in my tank that was growing well under 20K 175 watt MH for some time. It grows even better under 10K XMs and 15K Iwasakis. It would probably be sustainable under some flourescent curlycue bulbs or PCs/T5 and would probably prefer the lower Kelvin bulbs(4500K-6500K). LED grow light for terrestrial plants would probably work great as well.

 

[Anonymous]

Under 10K XMs:

Under 20K XMs:

 

[reefs4life1]

very beautiful tank!!! so its better to have a lower kelvin scale and a higher wattage? and i know i cant grow turtle grass (too much matinence from what i read) i thought maybe the smaller varieties lol im on a low budget kinda thing so i cant really afford $200 lighting but im still wondering about the paddle and star grasses ive read in some places that they can survive lower light ( like 2 watts per gallon) since they are low growing species and grow further away from the natural sunlight, is this true???? :?:

 

[Anonymous]

very beautiful tank!!! so its better to have a lower kelvin scale and a higher wattage? and i know i cant grow turtle grass (too much matinence from what i read) i thought maybe the smaller varieties lol im on a low budget kinda thing so i cant really afford $200 lighting but im still wondering about the paddle and star grasses ive read in some places that they can survive lower light ( like 2 watts per gallon) since they are low growing species and grow further away from the natural sunlight, is this true???? :?:

Possibly, but the tank would have to be super shallow to attempt growing anything at that wattage. The light penetration is dependent on the wattage and the depth of the tank. A 29 is too depp for the light to make it to the bottom.

FWIW... If you are at all handy (I am not!) you can get retrofit kits and build a hood for around $100 or so.

 

[reefs4life1]

do u think that the 6 inch sand bed helps at all???

 

[Anonymous]

Not appreciably, no. I would upgrade your lighting as suggested and save yourself the time and effort of trying to make something work that will have a disappointing outcome. You don't mention where you are from, but I'd check and see if there is a reef club near you. There is always plenty of used equipment around and perhaps you can find something inexpensive that would work.

 

[reefs4life1]

can i use one 150 wat reef aquarium metal halide light ???? if so i can do that!! so please let me know cause im leaving on tues for florida and i need to know if im going to look on the beach for seagrasses that have washed up???

 

[blackcloudmedia]

Chris from Florida here. Your not going to find seagrass laying on the beach. It doesnt grow on our beaches, it grows in inlets and marshlands here. Its used to VERY dirty water with high nutrients. Im also not sure about the legality of removing it due to it being a manatee foodsource so dont get caught just incase. Where in Fl are you headed? The seagrass we have is used to high turbidity so I wouldnt think it requires too much lighting. I havent tried growing it, but I can say our water is poopy. If your planning on going to the beach to look for sealife its not happening. For some reason the beaches here are deadzones, fishing is even poor here. I only find cool stuff after large storms or unusual tides. Stuart Fl is the official beginning of coral zones in Fl. but your gonna have a lot more FWC officers scouting around for that very purpose.

 

[JT]

It has been MANY years but I had the best success in keeping various sea grasses when they were lit with 5500K or 6500K metal halides. They were only 175W setups but the same kelvin configuration in VHOs didn't work well at all. We didn't have T5's back then so I have no clue how they'd work.

 

[Anonymous]

You would use less power and transfer less heat by using a T5 retro fit to light the refugium. It is also cheaper than MHs.

 

[Anonymous]

very beautiful tank!!! so its better to have a lower kelvin scale and a higher wattage? and i know i cant grow turtle grass (too much matinence from what i read) i thought maybe the smaller varieties lol im on a low budget kinda thing so i cant really afford $200 lighting but im still wondering about the paddle and star grasses ive read in some places that they can survive lower light ( like 2 watts per gallon) since they are low growing species and grow further away from the natural sunlight, is this true???? :?:

Lower Kelvin would be better because the grasses tend to live in the shallows, however, they will grow under higher Ks, just a little slower.

 

[Anonymous]

I have turtle grass from PR in my tank that was growing well under 20K 175 watt MH for some time. It grows even better under 10K XMs and 15K Iwasakis. It would probably be sustainable under some flourescent curlycue bulbs or PCs/T5 and would probably prefer the lower Kelvin bulbs(4500K-6500K). LED grow light for terrestrial plants would probably work great as well.

It depends on the color temp you need, though. Being as seagrass grows in pretty shallow beds it's going to prefer that lower Kelvin temp, which your subsequent photos demonstrate very well. (La Parguera, perchance? did you collect your grass yourself?) You note yourself that it may be the lower Kelvin rating bulbs that the seagrass might prefer, which would pretty much rule out LED lighting at this stage of the game. It can be done, but when you start trying to shift into the red spectrum then it seems to just fizzle out. Many people have been trying, but when it comes to penetration just through air and keeping that red end of the spectrum strong they don't yet have the push.

very beautiful tank!!! so its better to have a lower kelvin scale and a higher wattage? and i know i cant grow turtle grass (too much matinence from what i read) i thought maybe the smaller varieties lol im on a low budget kinda thing so i cant really afford $200 lighting but im still wondering about the paddle and star grasses ive read in some places that they can survive lower light ( like 2 watts per gallon) since they are low growing species and grow further away from the natural sunlight, is this true???? :?:

It depends on what you're trying to grow. Seagrass occurs at.. jeez, deepest I've seen I was able to touch the bottom and keep my head above water, so that's about 4' (in Puerto Rico, all Caribbean side). Yes definitely to higher wattage (PAR), because you're still trying to mimic the sun, and in many instances tropical sun at that.

I've never like the watt/gallon "rule". It doesn't account for factors such as tank depth, water clarity, bulb and fixture quality & output, etc., etc.

You might prefer to consider CFL (less expensive in almost all ways) or T5 (not so less expensive, also creates more heat) lighting, it would work best for you I think. Just keep the Kelvin temperature closer to the actual sun, instead of mimicking sunlight at depth (red waves are 'filtered' out first, then on down the spectrum til you're left with blue/ultraviolet), and you'll have the best prospects.

If it were me, I'd go with as many 100W 6500K Daylight (edited to add: CFLs, 100W equivelant) bulbs as I could comfortably fit in the hood. The single 175W, though, I might like even better. Except that I hate paying for HID lighting and not getting something back out of it.

 

[Anonymous]

I had an attached seagrass tank / refugium several years ago that I ran with a 10k 250 Watt halide. Like SM said, they would probably get as much or more out of a more yellow-red bulb like a 6500. Depth of substrate and composition is equally important with seagrass in my experience.

I'll see if I can dig up pictures of mine for an example. Also there are some good threads on another-reef-board-which-cannot-be-named you might dig into.