Light for 29 gallon

[Redness]

Hey guys,

My new opti-white 29 gallon will arrive in 6 weeks, and I'm getting all the materials I need already. (I definitly have MTS, please help...) the aquascape will mainly feature anubias types, buce and java fern. What light would be best for this instant and how far of the tank would it need to be? (NO CO2 BTW!)

Thanks in advance!

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

You can use any lower or medium tech WRGB light. Those plants are all low tech and slow growers. The less powerful the better in terms of algae. 29s are tall. 18" tall to be exact so most lights are actually rated to 14-16" I think so you should be ok mounting a light a couple inches above the surface.

Things to think about - you may want to consider one of the smaller swords, some corkscrew val, or a hardy stem that grows faster to use up the excess nutrients that algae thrives on. Floating plants also can fit this bill - red root floaters, salvinia, dwarf water lettuce. Dwarf aquarium lillies, Taiwan lilly, and red tiger lotus also are great at taking up a lot of nutrients and really add something to the tank. Because your planting plan is all slower growers that need a lot of nutrients to grow yet don't take up enough it creates a bit of a conundrum. Faster growing plants added to slower ones helps balance the nutrients in the water column. 

What are you stocking in there? Depending on how much waste they produce you will have to potentially adjust your fertilization up or down depending. Example low waste producers - most nano fish, neocaridina and kuhli loaches or pygmy corys they don't make a lot of waste so this needs to be considered in thinking about where the nitrates the plants need will come from. Are you going to use Easy Green? Do you know your pH, kh, gh, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate out of the tap? Having a testing kit can be super helpful in helping avoid most trouble down the road. 

Lights: You could do a Fluval Aquasky, I would do it at <50% to start, 8-10 hours a day favoring 8 hours, more green and red and turn down the blue to minimal settings as it tends to be the most algae producing spectrum. If you don't want to spend that much then JC&P or Hygger make some decent WRGB lights but they aren't as adjustable. You may have to pull the MD Fishtanks trick of using black electrical tape to block out some of the LEDs if it ends up making an algae farm. 

Consider a siesta - having the lights go off for 2 hours or so in the middle of the day to allow the CO2 to build back up. You can do this with the app on a Fluval or using a Kasa wi-fi timer. Timers and apps that control the light cycle are your friend. They help reduce algae.  In general,

With a planted tank there will be ups and downs but consistencyy with water changes, lights on timers, not over feeding or fertilizing, using a chart like this one to gauge what nutrients or if there is too much of something also helps. Having this forum is amazing - I've done this for 36 years and my tanks now are so much better thanks to this community. Have fun! Sorry for the rambling reply! Here's a great tutorial. 

Plant Nutrition – Aquarium Co-Op (aquariumcoop.com)

 

[Redness]

On 4/12/2022 at 9:30 PM, Beardedbillygoat1975 said:

You can use any lower or medium tech WRGB light. Those plants are all low tech and slow growers. The less powerful the better in terms of algae. 29s are tall. 18" tall to be exact so most lights are actually rated to 14-16" I think so you should be ok mounting a light a couple inches above the surface.

Things to think about - you may want to consider one of the smaller swords, some corkscrew val, or a hardy stem that grows faster to use up the excess nutrients that algae thrives on. Floating plants also can fit this bill - red root floaters, salvinia, dwarf water lettuce. Dwarf aquarium lillies, Taiwan lilly, and red tiger lotus also are great at taking up a lot of nutrients and really add something to the tank. Because your planting plan is all slower growers that need a lot of nutrients to grow yet don't take up enough it creates a bit of a conundrum. Faster growing plants added to slower ones helps balance the nutrients in the water column. 

What are you stocking in there? Depending on how much waste they produce you will have to potentially adjust your fertilization up or down depending. Example low waste producers - most nano fish, neocaridina and kuhli loaches or pygmy corys they don't make a lot of waste so this needs to be considered in thinking about where the nitrates the plants need will come from. Are you going to use Easy Green? Do you know your pH, kh, gh, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate out of the tap? Having a testing kit can be super helpful in helping avoid most trouble down the road. 

Lights: You could do a Fluval Aquasky, I would do it at <50% to start, 8-10 hours a day favoring 8 hours, more green and red and turn down the blue to minimal settings as it tends to be the most algae producing spectrum. If you don't want to spend that much then JC&P or Hygger make some decent WRGB lights but they aren't as adjustable. You may have to pull the MD Fishtanks trick of using black electrical tape to block out some of the LEDs if it ends up making an algae farm. 

Consider a siesta - having the lights go off for 2 hours or so in the middle of the day to allow the CO2 to build back up. You can do this with the app on a Fluval or using a Kasa wi-fi timer. Timers and apps that control the light cycle are your friend. They help reduce algae.  In general,

With a planted tank there will be ups and downs but consistencyy with water changes, lights on timers, not over feeding or fertilizing, using a chart like this one to gauge what nutrients or if there is too much of something also helps. Having this forum is amazing - I've done this for 36 years and my tanks now are so much better thanks to this community. Have fun! Sorry for the rambling reply! Here's a great tutorial. 

Thanks for all of the information! For the start up of the tank i will be using some stemplants but it's not the look i'm going for it will be an epyhite and moss only tank i will also trow in some salvina. 

The stocking will be 5 male guppies, 15 neons and 2 goramis and 6 corys. I will mabye add some more neons or rummynose in the future. 

In terms of my tap, nitrates and nitrite are at 0, ph is between 6.8 and 7.0, Kh is pretty high but i plan on getting a ro unit. Gh is the correct amount. 

I am curently using a hyger light on my 29 that i already have, and i only have one problem and that is the colour of the light. I have heard some positive things about Nicrews planted light, would you recomend it?

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

R/o fixes everything! Get one of the commercial gh formulas like Salty Shrimp to remineralize and you'll be good to go with the perfect pH and softness for your South American fish. Your guppies will not be happy though. They love a hard water tank, crushed coral and all the kh/gh you can give them. That's kind of counter to your soft water species. Something to think about - maybe do the neons and the rummys and drop the guppies. 

The Nicrew, Beamsworks and most of those lights including the old Hyggers are all made by a lot of the same factories. If you are looking to dial in the color for your fish you are going to want to get a light with an app or a controller so that you can adjust the color balance. I don't remember Nicrew's having that ability but I also haven't looked lately - only look for used Fluval's of late. 

I have a Finnex Planted 24/7, I use it on a timer for 10 hours a day, it has a controller but the only issue is that with a timer it will when turned back on always go to the max setting. I know that many folks like the original Finnex Stingray for the money it has great color and grows good plants. I think they are becoming harder to find as Finnex wants everyone to buy the Stingray 2. God knows when the COOP light will come out. 

[Redness]

On 4/12/2022 at 9:59 PM, Beardedbillygoat1975 said:

R/o fixes everything! Get one of the commercial gh formulas like Salty Shrimp to remineralize and you'll be good to go with the perfect pH and softness for your South American fish. Your guppies will not be happy though. They love a hard water tank, crushed coral and all the kh/gh you can give them. That's kind of counter to your soft water species. Something to think about - maybe do the neons anmd the rummys and drop the guppies. 

The Nicrew, Beamsworks and most of those lights including the old Hyggers are all made by a lot of the same factories. If you are looking to dial in the color for your fish you are going to want to get a light with an app or a controller so that you can adjust the color balance. I don't remember Nicrew's having that ability but I also haven't looked lately - only look for used Fluval's of late. 

I have a Finnex Planted 24/7, I use it on a timer for 10 hours a day, it has a controller but the only issue is that with a timer it will when turned back on always go to the max setting. I know that many folks like the original Finnex Stingray for the money it has great color and grows good plants. I think they are becoming harder to find as Finnex wants everyone to buy the Stingray 2. God knows when the COOP light will come out. 

The problem i'm having is that i already have male guppies with females in my curent tank and I’m getting overrun with guppy fry. So i wanted to seperate them togheter with some of my other fish. 

I cant find any Finnex models in my area, in terms of fluval what would you recomend? (My budget is around 100 dollars) 

 

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

Aquasky is a great light, one you can use in a moderate tech or low tech setup. Highly programmable. Look up the tutorial from @Bentley Pascoeon YouTube it is excellent!

It's under $100 for the 24-36" model!

[nabokovfan87]

On 4/12/2022 at 12:09 PM, Redness said:

Hey guys,

My new opti-white 29 gallon will arrive in 6 weeks, and I'm getting all the materials I need already. (I definitly have MTS, please help...) the aquascape will mainly feature anubias types, buce and java fern. What light would be best for this instant and how far of the tank would it need to be? (NO CO2 BTW!)

Thanks in advance!

For the tank you're looking at something like this would be fine.
 

There's also other options. fish for thought has some lights he prefers.

I would choose between the fluval and that one, just really depends what features you want. Hopefully the co-op lights would be out soon, but I know they said they are starting with larger sizes to fill the order requirements for the shorter sizes.

That's the three I think are "worth" looking into.

[Patrick_G]

I think just about any Aquarium specific light would work for those plants. The Fluval 3.0 is mid priced and has an app to control lighting duration, spectrum and intensity. I have one and like it a lot. 
 

 

Oops, I just noticed your budget! The Fluval Aquasky fits the bill at around $100. (£76 if you’re in the UK)

Edited April 12, 2022 by Patrick_G

[Nate s]

I would suggest getting a light that you can ramp down (for slow growers) or ramp up (if you decide later on you want to add medium light plants). That way you buy one light and it’s flexible to any of the plants you want to try. 

[Gannon]

On 4/12/2022 at 2:09 PM, Redness said:

Hey guys,

My new opti-white 29 gallon will arrive in 6 weeks, and I'm getting all the materials I need already. (I definitly have MTS, please help...) the aquascape will mainly feature anubias types, buce and java fern. What light would be best for this instant and how far of the tank would it need to be? (NO CO2 BTW!)

Thanks in advance!

the finnex 24/7 HLC light has worked well for me on this size tank, but I got that during a huge sale so maybe not the best value for everyone