If u have faith in me...i would advice u...if u want to try REDS...get a tank with minium 2 feet height..., the lower the height the more diffcult it is to plant reds.

here is how i do it with a two footer...just to give u a picture on what u have to go thru.
i always start from the emerge form since i couldnt afford tropica...and it would be silly to buy tropica if u could achieve somewhere near its quality with a rm2 plant.

LIghting for the 1st month in a 2 footer, 1.5 or 1 feet height doesnt make much difference if u are using a PLL.
the catch is ...i dont use PLL during the transformation period.
i use 6800K x 1, and 18000k x1. a total of 40watts.

2nd month....as the plants begin to transform...the lighting confiration becomes...
2900K x 1 , 6800k x1, 18000K x 1 total of 60watts

3rd month....the plants should be in submerge form by now.
the lightings change again.
865PLL x 2, 18000K x 1...total of 92watts...

normally heat generated from the lightings would be a problem by now...fixing a blower fan is out of the question with space taken up by the lighting.

but ...hear this...notice how the i add in the watts bit by bit in the past 3 months? some big time sifus swear that reds would not grow in temp above 27'C but i could do it even at 29'C.....why? figure this out yourself.
give u a clue...those reds started out as emgerge species.......then slowly............................................ ...

4th month. the lighting chances for the final time
865PLLx 2, hitachi 15 watts reddish light x 1, 15watts blue light x 1

u may ask why i use blue light in a planted tank. well....its a trade secret in dealing with reds...aaah...so so secret nowdays...the cat is out of the bag for a very long time now....blue is a must ...if u want to grow healty reds.


OK..now...after all this ...do u seriously want to grow reds in your 2 footer??? this is only the lighting part........ferts and substrate is a totall different and lenghty story.

suppose u preffer to go back to basics and start from there...its much better for u ...i asure u.

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