Chopstick

I have a 150g with 2 white neons and 2 blue
I only open the 2 whites but should i open the blues?
because right now im using other neon (portable) to light up my planted aquarium

suemvb

Ohhhh I was thinking what does chopstick mean "open his neons" I was thinking of a neon tetra lol. A lighting expert will be along soon

Chopstick

lol sorry for my low quality vocabulary D: english isn't my main language andd

I have a freshwater tank

suemvb

Oh no I'm sorry, that was just me being silly. Your English is great! Now I'm jealous of your 150 gallon tank and your ability to learn a second language.

mathas

Can you provide a bit more information? Specifically:

1. What wattage is(are) the fixture(s)?

2. Do you know exactly what the bulbs are other than white/blue? Brand and model number would be ideal.

3. What types of plants do you have?

4. How tall is this tank?

Chopstick

1. the 2 white neons are at 30 W each and the 2 blues are at 30 W each
i have 1 small neon but at 40 W that is covering half of my tank and i have 3 30W on from the other aquarium neons that is cover the top/side of my tank ( its my other aquarium but since its only a bit less that a meter away from my aquarium i put them in vertical and light up)
2. Aqua-Glo Made in japan
3. I have duckweed (the cover like 1/25 of the surface) just got them not long ago, 4 Common Hornwort, Amazon swordplant with a fertilizer, a bigg Rosanervig's Hygrophila with fertilizer, 2 Straight Vallisneria, and 1 plant that i can't ID (it looks like having water lilly leave/ or lotus but its tall and it has some will mustaches on some of the stem) with a fertilizer
4. my tank is 28'' but thesre 2''1/2 of gravel and the water is up to 25''1/2

Thanks for the help

P.s suemvb english is my 4th language, i speak vietnamese, chinese and french xP still 16 tho

suemvb

Wow now I’m super impressed! Good for you Chopstick!

I didn’t mean to offend you. I didn’t notice anything at all wrong with your English. It’s just that when I saw blue neon I was picturing a Neon Tetra fish.

Sorry

mathas

A tank that size (and by size I'm referring to both capacity and depth) is likely going to need more than 120W to keep the plants happy long-term, especially with floating plants like duckweed to help block light from penetrating into the water.

So yes, use all the bulbs you have available.

Chopstick

Thanks but should does it matter if i keep my other aquarium light vertical so the light can light up my aquarium from the side?

mathas

I would think that that type of set up would be less efficient than lighting from the top, but I don't know that I've ever seen anyone try it.

There's a law in physics called the "inverse-square law," that says that the intensity of light from a given source is inversely proportional to the square of the distance from that source. It sounds confusing, but in layman's terms, it means that if you move an object twice as far away from a light source as it currently is, that new position receives only ¼ the energy in the same time period.

Since most tanks are longer than they are deep, it seems like attempting to illuminate the entire tank from the side would be less efficient than trying to illuminate from above due to the exponentially-diminishing intensity as the light tries to penetrate the entire length of the tank.

I could be wrong, though