# 50 Gallon Lighting (Current - Satellite Freshwater LED+)



## C-kidder (Aug 2, 2014)

Hey everybody I am looking for some help / advice with some lighting on a 50 gallon that I am hoping to plant heavily in the near future. 

The tank currently has Peppercorn and Concolor cory's, white cloud minnows that (never got ate by my cichlids so they ended up there) Odessa barbs, Denisonii barbs, Cardinals tetra's, SAE's, 1 red tail shark  and 1 rainbow fish and some pleco's

I have some low light plants in there that are struggling to grow. It's got a basic sand bottom made up of (National Geographic Aquarium Sand) and a Current - Satellite Freshwater LED+. I have read a few online reviews of people using the light that love it and it was recommended by J+L to grow plants but I also have read that it won't grow anything with moderate light needs. 
Has anybody had any luck with these light fixtures growing any plants? I am hoping not to go spend another $100+ on another LED light but I am not sure there are any other options if I want to get my plants to stay alive and grow. I tried water lettuce and water lily but they both slowly browned and died to my shock since they were right beside the light and still were unable to grow at all. 

I don't dose any liquid ferts and do not play with CO2 which I am sure would help but I am looking more for plants that look decent and will grow like weeds without adding to much extra stuff to the tank.

I know about the obvious choices like java fern and those plants that are hearty but even those are having a hard time getting growth.


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## Ocean (Nov 20, 2014)

Hi i dont know any light fixtures under 100 that can work for the setup you want.. But if you do go for 200 less, I would recommend finnex ray led. So far my plants are doing well. I have amazon swords, jungle vals, anubis, java fern and red ludwegia. If you do decide to try supplements, I dose with seachem flourish excel a co2 supplement. Seachem iron and potassium to combat the glassy, yellow leaves. My plants have a dark green color. Dosing has made a big difference. Good luck.


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## Niku (Feb 11, 2014)

I have never had luck with LED's that being said I just bought a beam works from Charles and we will see what happens. Can you provide how many watts per diod your light is and how many diods there are you can get a better idea of penitration of light into water from that. I would highly recommend co2 injection and if you want to dose just hit up pat (My kids) from Canadian aquatics he will get you all the dry ferts you need to do EI (estimated index) dosing. I tried all other types seachem addative, aquavitro, tropica and nothing worked as well for me as estimated index. I do still dose excell as an algaecide but I use metricide as it is way cheaper and more concentrated. If you need some let me know I buy in large containers so I can pour you out a small bottle to try.


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## C-kidder (Aug 2, 2014)

Niku said:


> I have never had luck with LED's that being said I just bought a beam works from Charles and we will see what happens. Can you provide how many watts per diod your light is and how many diods there are you can get a better idea of penitration of light into water from that. I would highly recommend co2 injection and if you want to dose just hit up pat (My kids) from Canadian aquatics he will get you all the dry ferts you need to do EI (estimated index) dosing. I tried all other types seachem addative, aquavitro, tropica and nothing worked as well for me as estimated index. I do still dose excell as an algaecide but I use metricide as it is way cheaper and more concentrated. If you need some let me know I buy in large containers so I can pour you out a small bottle to try.


I have 3 beamsworks fixtures I bought from Charles. NOW THAT IS A REAL LED!!!! Hahaha I have mine set up on larger tanks that are 2x as deep as my 50G and they can grow anything I have been throwing in the tanks. I haven't tried any crazy plants because all my tanks are SA cichlids but they seem to grow all the basic stuff very easily. I really wish I had got another beamsworks for my 50 gallon as well because I wouldn't have to go through all this. How much do you think you spend on ferts on a weekly basis? Its something I am not against but its a family tank so I don't want to spend a ton of money on a tank that I keep running for my parents.

Fixture size= 48 
Wattage = 30	
Led's = 96 White/48 RGB

Total Lumens	[email protected]"	[email protected]"	[email protected]"
2000 36 28 21



Ocean said:


> Hi i dont know any light fixtures under 100 that can work for the setup you want.. But if you do go for 200 less, I would recommend finnex ray led. So far my plants are doing well. I have amazon swords, jungle vals, anubis, java fern and red ludwegia. If you do decide to try supplements, I dose with seachem flourish excel a co2 supplement. Seachem iron and potassium to combat the glassy, yellow leaves. My plants have a dark green color. Dosing has made a big difference. Good luck.


Thanks I will check them out. I was just trying to find a solution without replacing the lighting completely as the Satellite Freshwater LED+ was about $150 after tax's.


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## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

I think it would help if you posted up some basic info about the tank and water parameters and a pic so we can see what the lighting level is at.

GH/KH/pH/temperature
nitrate
Frequency and amount of water changes

Dimensions of the tank (depth is probably the most important.
Specs or a link to the specs of the light

Those things would probably give us a better basis for giving you useful advice.


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## Scampi (Apr 21, 2014)

I don't use LED's other than anything but night lights for my tank .. I've never had any luck with them in terms of getting more life out of my plants. 

I use a 48" fixture over my 55 gallon and recently updated my old tubes to full spectrum light tubes and all of my plants have started to grow like nobody's business.


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## C-kidder (Aug 2, 2014)

Tank size is a legnth - 48'' width - 13'' Height - 20''

Ill be 100% honest in saying that I never check either GH or KH and don't even have a test kit for either. PH is low at 6.7 probably because of the water changes done of recent every day to remove some medication from the tank. 
Water changes 1 time a week about 40% and maybe the odd extra water change if somebody else in the family try's to help out. 
If it helps the tank is being filtered by a XP3 and a smaller topfin internal 40 for extra circulation 
Most of the lighting stats are in the above post but here is the link to the website. 
Satellite Freshwater LED+ | Current-USA


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## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

I don't really think LED or not LED makes much difference. The difference is the appearance to the eye. As points of reference I'll embed some pics:

LED, no CO2, Florabase on the top tank (ignore the lower one as you will see it in the next pic):









LED, CO2, ADA AS (sorry for the lousy phone pic, I realized that I didn't have any recent photos):









LED, CO2, plain gravel (and a bazillion plant eating plecos):









The last tank started out a lot more planted, but the plecos refused to let anything live in the substrate. I mainly grow Anubias and Java Fern in the tank for nutrient management.


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## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

I don't see any reason why you can't grow low light plants in that tank even though the PAR readings for that light is very low (between 21 and 28). The first tank in my pic probably gets less light than that and is growing crypts, subwassertang and Anubias without any problems, albeit slowly.


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## C-kidder (Aug 2, 2014)

Pictures of the tank. Some things are actually growing but everything is slow and most brown if they can't reach up near the top! I am not sure what the broad leafed plant in the pictures that is in the center and off to the left. It's the only thing that seems to be lush and growing.


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## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

That's an Echinordorus species to the left and Anubias in the center. Perfect plants for a low light setup. I think the problem is that you're wanting more and faster growth, which isn't going to happen in a low light unsupplemented tank. My advice is to get more Anubias and some Cryptocoryne species which will grow well in that tank, albeit slowly. If you want more/faster growth then you'll have to start thinking about CO2/Glute, macro dosing and then more lighting.


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## Niku (Feb 11, 2014)

If your getting 21 at the bottom that's not terrible low light plants should be growing ok. 

I think I spent $50 getting all required dry ferts back in April of this year for my tank. Here we are 8ish months later and I'm no where close to running out ... Maybe KNO3 and CSM+B in like another 6 months to a year but the rest are probably good for 2 or 3 years for me. And I'm dosing heavy in a 90gal.

They are quite cost effective  and all you need is some measuring spoons a 1liter jug and to be consistent with once a week water changes


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## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

If the nitrates are at 40 ppm or more before a water change dosing is not going to do anything other than increasing the TDS of the water, unfortunately. What's needed is some water parameters. I highly doubt that with the small plant load and moderate fish load with low lighting that any of the macros are bottoming out. I could be wrong, but only water tests would tell us that.


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## C-kidder (Aug 2, 2014)

Just did a water test when I check the PH this morning and all of the perimeters were good. I cleaned the filter on the 1st of December and have been doing water changes to get rid of a fungus medication that was used so there is very good water right now. Before that I didn't test it but will keep checking it and keep a eye on perimeters. Its got a fairly small bio load as you can see everything is small and none of the groups are larger then 5-6 except the group of odessa's is at 11.
Used the API master test kit and had
Nitrites = 0 
Nitrates = 0 
Ammonia = .05 there was a little bit lighter yellow then it should have been.
PH = 6.6


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## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

Ok, they are not good. Niku is right, if your nitrates are 0 then you need to start dosing. Probably only need KNO3 and KH2PO4. Dosing those should add enough P also. I suspect the ammonia reading is false as your plants will uptake ammonia before nitrates.

Just check with Pat (Mykiss) when he will be in Surrey next and you can pick up a pound each of those 2 for $5 each. Will likely last you a year.


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## C-kidder (Aug 2, 2014)

OOPS EDITED!!! the ammonia was suppose to have a 0 before the 5


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## Niku (Feb 11, 2014)

i concur, but would also recommend you get CSM+B to dose micros as well. Its not all that much per pound, also you will have to fill out a declaration of intention for pat which will require a photo of picture ID just a heads up so you have a pic on hand.


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## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

The uptake rate would be so slow without CO2 injection that I suspect regular water changes would take care of it. I don't dose trace in any of my tanks except my CO2 injected ones. Unless you have red plants or something with high iron uptake, it's likely not necessary.


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## charles (Apr 21, 2010)

I want to add something, but you have two great guys helping you. So before I said something to make a fool out of myself, let me just say thank you for supporting our LED fixture 

And Chase, the LED will be on the Boxing week sale soon if you want to pick up one for the 36".


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