Recommendations For Light Set-Up: 6' Wide 2' Deep Planted Tank

[elf_poop]

Please provide some recommendations for a 6 feet wide, 2 feet deep tank that I want to have med-heavy planted.

My plants are doing terrible (maybe you can recommend soil as well?).

Thanks!

[biodives]

Do you want to grow challenging plants and consider going all-in for a high-tech setup or are you happy to pick plants that you like and are also known to grow well at lower light levels? I have a 4' long 24" tall tank and use a Current USA satellite pro plus LED light and find it is powerful enough for lush plant growth (but expensive). I also have a 4' Aqueon optibright plus on a 16" tall tank and that would not be strong enough for a 24" tank. For fluorescent tube lighting I would expect two high output 6' tubes would do, especially with good reflector but I haven't used tubes for a while so others may chime in.

The main challenge is providing light for the ground cover and to the bottom ends of stem plants. I am using dwarf sword plants (Helanthium tenellum, aka Echinodorus tenellus) as foreground plant and it grows well even in shaded areas. I also have micro sword plants (Lilaeopsis brassiliense) and it survives but grows very slowly. In my tank I use Myriophyllum mattogrossense as the main stem plant and have no real problems with the bottom end of stems deteriorating due to shading. However, it helps to get longer stems to start with as I got them just 2" tall and it took a long time for them to catch on. Once they grow closer to the light they take off though. Mayaca fluviatilis also grows well for me as do bigger amazon sword plants. There are many more low-light tolerant plants to chose from, this is just what has worked for me. I basically looked at the list of Tropica's "easy" plants and started with that. As they all grew well I started adding some "medium" difficulty plants and they are also all doing well. Next year I plan to try to some difficult plants, but in another less tall tank.

My tank is on soft neutral water, so if you are on tap water you can also look for plants that like or tolerate hard water (a lot of plants from natural soft acidic waters do just fine in hard water). Still it is easier, or at least a lot cheaper, to match the plants to your lights then to match the lights to difficult plants.

Adding richer soils or just potting soil is quite standard, can give an ammonium/algae spike at the start but seems to work for many people. I use straight unwashed playground sand in all my tanks and don't use liquid or root tablet fertilizers either. I believe the best fertilizer is elf poop but fish poop is a good alternative and that is what my tanks rely on. My oldest tank is now running for 6 months so it is possible that my plain substrate runs out of juice earlier than if I had added a richer soil underneath. Time will tell (but in the Netherlands I've been running tanks like this for years without substrate issues).

There is always going to be a bit of trial and error. Good luck with the trials and hopefully not too many errors

[TheWetLeaf]

"I believe the best fertilizer is elf poop but fish poop is a good alternative and that is what my tanks rely on."

​Most of the commercial lights meant for plants will have a chart on their website describing PAR at certain depths and you can do some google searches for people who have done their own tests on specific lights. Also diy set ups. Generally PAR is split up like this,Low light 15-30 par, medium light 35-50 par,high light50+ par. If you want a high light tank you would be aiming for 50+ par at your substrate, 35-50 for a medium light tank.

Plants need a good substrate. Some people like Dirted tanks, potting soil caped with sand or gravel, cheap and grow plants well. If you move plants around a lot it can make a mess. Products like Tropica aquarium soil or Ada soils work very well, but can get a bit expensive for big tanks.

CO2 is the most important fertilizer you can add to your tank, even a low light tank. Think about it if you are serious about growing plants. You can find used systems on here too.

Liquid/dry fertilizer most likely will be needed. Depends on the route you chose. Some people don't fertilize Dirted tanks at all. Estimative index is easy.

The right plant selection for your tank is important too as biodives mentioned.

I've mentioned all of this because light is just one of the things needed to grow plants. I "drive" most tanks with light, I use a soil substrate, lots of CO2, lots of fertilizers and consistent water changes. The amount of light over the tank is the only thing that is limiting plant growth. Generally keeps most plants happy and the tank stable. And you will find that you are able to keep slightly higher light plants than what you should be able to keep in your tank.

[elf_poop]

OK this is helpful. (I have plenty of fish poop, and have not needed to cultivate elf poop for a while now.)

I have a small dirted tank that does well but I'm not going that route again cause it's too messy. I want to just do sand because it's so easy to plant the roots. I do have play sand and clay gravel right now mixing, unintendedly.

The main reason I am concerned with light is because my smaller/shorter tanks are doing well and have much older substrate (non fertilized, no CO2, no/few fish) and my big one is not. I did not go with LED because they don't go 24" depth. Have 2 fluror sunblaster T5 tube's on this tank (Fluval planted tank LED on the other and sunblaster T5 bulbs on the dirted tank).

I think I'll try CO2 once I redo it with some easy plants intended for hard water.