Should I consider my tank low, medium or high light?

[PineSong]

My 20g long has a Finnex Stingray on for 6 hours per day. The tank sits on a bar between two rooms and there are three incandescent pendant lights hanging over the bar. These pendants are on all day for reasons unrelated to my tank. 

When plant shopping, should I consider this a medium or high light setup? (I'm assuming it's not low light because that's what I considered the incandescents alone when they were growing my betta's plants.)

[Koi]

I have the stingray 2 on a 10 gallon which I think is same height to your tank and I would say it is at least medium lighting maybe med/high without a lid on the tank. But low/med/high might differ depending who you ask. For me it's either too little or too much.

Without knowing which version stingray you have, this might help. Theres a par comparison of the 2 versions under a few different circumstances.

 

[Ken]

According to this you're high light.

https://www.aquariumcoop.com/pages/led-aquarium-lighting

[PineSong]

On 7/17/2021 at 1:47 PM, Ken said:

According to this you're high light.

https://www.aquariumcoop.com/pages/led-aquarium-lighting

Ah, thank you, Ken. I'm not sure how I missed that after the fact--I think I saw it when I was originally contemplating lights.   To reconcile the fact that according to this chart, my tank is high light, while according to Irene's video it's more low/medium I think it depends on what the "low" means. Seems like Irene's kit light (and the bulbs on all my previous tanks) is "low" and compared to that, yes the Stingray is high. It's just not high compared to the more powerful lights that are available now and therefore the whole category of "growable plants" has expanded incredibly and skewed the categories a lot.

Edited July 17, 2021 by PineSong

[PineSong]

On 7/16/2021 at 9:25 PM, Koi said:

Without knowing which version stingray you have, this might help. Theres a par comparison of the 2 versions under a few different circumstances.

 

Interesting. I have the Stingray 1, so according to Irene's measurement that would be about 32 micromols which would be low/almost medium light at the bottom of the tank. Plants that are up a lot higher than the substrate are likely more in the "medium" range at the top. I'll have to cross my fingers with my medium light varieties and honestly, as long as they don't flat out die, I'll be okay with very slow growth.

[Koi]

What kind of plants will you be getting?

[PineSong]

On 7/17/2021 at 6:30 PM, Koi said:

What kind of plants will you be getting?

I've already got them 🙂 Many of them I just recently got so it's too soon to tell if they are going to be happy. The ones I had in other tanks that are now in this 20gallon long are pogo octopus, java fern, creeping Jenny. The new ones are anubias nana, valisneria, dwarf sword and a scarlet temple. The pogo octopus seem happy enough with their new home, they have put on growth. The valisneria has also grown new leaves in the two weeks it has been here. Fingers crossed.

[Koi]

I think those plants will do fine in your setup especially with a shallow tank I wouldn't be too concerned with light penetration. Theres a possibility you might not get the full on deep red from your scarlet temple but it sounds like this plant gives a lot of people that trouble. 

Good luck!