Ah_Chiu 寫:
Hi bros,
My tank's spec -
* 14.5"(L) x 9.5"(W) x 14.5"(H) = approx 30L
* soil-to-water level = 12"
* T5 8W x 4 = 32 W
* tank set for 11 days
My plants have "chasing light" symptom. Their stems become very long and reach the water surface but the "leave crowns" are very small => like "baboo"

!!
(1) Any ways to restore their original normal shapes?
(2) Is it due to insufficient light power ?
(3) My four "T5 8w" lights are cheap PRC products bought fm "Ap Liu St". Should I replace the tubes with Philip models? How much for each Philip tube?
(4) Is it due to my "improper" lighting hours - I kept the lights on for the past 10 days (until yesterday when I bought a new air pump to replace the broken one!). I then turned off the lights for the first time last nite and turned them on this morning. But when I returned home tonite, the plants have developed the symptoms
(5) should I continue to turn off the lights at nite time?
Pls Pls advise

!
(1) It can't be rectified, you have to wait until the leave grow healthy first, then cut off the bottom part and replant later.
(2) 追光 is insufficient lighting in general, it can be shaded by other plant or wood/stone, insufficient amount of light, insufficient "penetration" of light, or insufficient lighting time. In your case, I think it probably is penetration of light and sudden change of lighting duration that cause the problem
(3) change the FL tube to Philips has the least effect. The quality of reflector inside the light and the power supply circuit has stronger implication given the same FL arrangement. Cheap FL problems are mainly shorter life time and unstable colour temp, insufficient light output is relatively a small issue.
(4) You should NOT keep the light on all the time, it is no good to the plant and fishes, and created an environment that is good for algae. Normally when we start a new aquarium, we use 4 hours per day only, and then start to extend the lighting time slowly. So in second or third week, we increase to 5 hours per day, and one week later, 6 hours per days, so on and so forth. We normally consider 8 hours per day is enough for a proper setting.
Your aquarium is 14.5" L and 14.5" H, this a square in the front view, this is difficult for setting up lighting for planted aquarium as the penetration of FL or PL that can fit into that kind of depth can hardly fit into 15" length, so if you want to use that for a 陽草缸, it is not going to be esay. The best bet is go for 2x18W PL but even with that, penetration is not going to sufficient if you have a fairly densed planted aquarium.