Journal Jay's 40 Breeder Farm Tank

[JacksonL]

I’m going to go with 32.

For an unplanned chaos tank, it certainly looks great.
Which plants are struggling in there? And what is your theory as to why?
I presume it is due to crowding or shading?

 

[JayP]

I’m going to go with 32.

For an unplanned chaos tank, it certainly looks great.
Which plants are struggling in there? And what is your theory as to why?
I presume it is due to crowding or shading?

Have you been sneaking into my basement to examine this tank? I think you're right on the number for total plants and your ideas for why some are struggling are also correct.

One issue I have with the Week Aqua lights, and this may be true for other similar lights. Is the inconsistent par readings around the tank. I had that issue with the original M series on this tank and the L series is not really different. I understand that par on the outer perimeter will be lower then in the center, but I don't expect the variation I'm seeing. You would think the par at one end of the tank would be the same at the other end but it's not, nor is it the same from front to back. There are definitely hot and cold spots in these lights. Some of these plants are craving super high light so I have to move things around to accommodate them and if I crank up the light for them, algae picks up on those slower growing plants that prefer moderate levels. I think some plants are also nutrient hogs, so to give them what they want, I dose a bit heavy. I know many here say that doesn't lead to algae, but I'm not yet fully convinced of that. Lastly, I do see signs that some plants just don't like to be in close quarters with other plants. This just tends to be the taller stem plants.