Lighting a heavily planted bow front

The plants in my 36 bow front are starting to get to the point where they're blocking off light to the lower portions. My purple cabomba is showing some signs of light starvation at the bottom. The newer oakleaf is also getting very leggy and reaching.

I was experimenting with an elive track light and it just doesn't cut it for plant growth, however I truly bought it for my un-planted 20 long. I also have a current satellite on the tank.

I'm going to upgrade lighting and I'm considering going back to CO2. That'll depend on whether I can get enough light to the bottom through the jungle!

I only want one fixture on top instead of two. I'm curious what people think of the finnex fugeray planted+ vs. the finnex ray 2. It's about 19 inches from the rI'm to the substrate. Is the ray 2 going to be overkill? Will the planted+ penetrate through the dense vegetation?

 

Looks like a Forest! I think the Planted+ will be better since you might get algae blooms and other algae problems with the Ray 2!

 

I would think either 1 or 2 of the Ray 2 would be needed for that height esp if you're trying to grow cabomba which is a high light plant. Of course, you'd probably need to balance that out with enough ferts and CO2.

 

Looks like a Forest! I think the Planted+ will be better since you might get algae blooms and other algae problems with the Ray 2!

Haha, yeah. Inspiration for the tank was a south American River bottom. Do you think the ray 2 will still pose algae issues if I got the co2 route?

 

I would think either 1 or 2 of the Ray 2 would be needed for that height esp if you're trying to grow cabomba which is a high light plant. Of course, you'd probably need to balance that out with enough ferts and CO2.

That's what I'm thinking... Hoping I can get away with just 1 . I already have the co2 setup from a previous tank, and also have ferts. Just need lighting!

 

So does anyone else have any experience with the Ray 2? I'm no stranger to high light setup, but I'm not well versed in high light LEDs.

 

Ok, so I ordered the ray 2 at my LFS and it arrived today... Broken . So I was talking to the owner and he suggested I go with the fluval fresh and plant LED 2.0. He said if I don't like it he'll take it back and order another ray 2 from the local distributor. It has red and blue lights for plant growth, and is dimmable.

I decided to go for it, and first impression: holy brightness Batman!!! It's like I crammed the sun into a light and then put it on a box of water . I'm already unsure about the controls, the one button that's touch sensitive will take some getting used to, but wow is this thing bright. It also has so much cord length, that I think I could plug it into the next room over . It does make the plants explode with color.

We'll see how it goes, but here's a before and after.

Before:

After:

 

Wow! That is bright! Looks fantastic.

 

Thanks. I can't believe how muted the myrio and cabomba were!

 

The colours really pop now.

 

Yep many people don't realize how drabby there tank look with regular lights. The Ray 2 is probably brighter since its much stronger.

 

Beautiful tank!

 

Beautiful tank!

Thank you! The bow front has been a thorn in my side for a while. It really took a long time to figure out how to work with it and make it right! I'm finally happy with it.

 

Edit: Accidental post, sorry!