# Other Aquarium Forums > Equipment and Accessories > DIY Projects >  How do i DIY PL Lights?

## renrub

What do i need? ie starter blabla.. please guide or give me a link or two. Can't find anything after searching through the forum.

Is it possible for me to convert my current 2feet FL holder to hold 2x PL tubes? If so, how? 

Thanks in advance.

----------


## PeterGwee

Renrub, I remember you posted lately about your plants dying in your newly setup tank? Getting more light is not the solution as your current amount of light 45W in total is enough for a standard 2 ft (2ft X 1ft X 1ft?) tank. Look at the CO2(get it within 20-30ppm range during lights on period is critical), NO3(5-10ppm)&amp;lt;with test kit or estimative method but when using estimative method, best with low bioload as it lessen the chance of interference, K(20-30ppm)&amp;lt;Dose estimatively using chuck gadd's calculator, traces(3.5ml 2-3X a week would do for your tank) and finally PO4(0.5-2ppm)&amp;lt; tested with test kit or dosed estimatively.

Amount of light is easy to control...CO2 and NO3 are the two biggest problems if things go bad. Too much or too little CO2 is no good..NO3, best kept on the low side or just enough as high NO3 can destablized tanks and cause algae outbreaks.

----------


## renrub

i think i've found out why some of the plants are dying already.
I uprooted all the plants this afternoon and discovered that 2 out of the 4 spieces of plants have grown new roots.

I remember that 2 or 3 days before my plants started rotting, i added 7ml of &amp;quot;crystal clear&amp;quot; solution to my tank, without any filteration on. As the crystal clear solution causes smaller particles to consolidate to form bigger particles, these particles formed on the surface of the plants, causing the plant to be unable to make food. This may have caused the plants to start rotting. And the 2species of plants that grew new fine roots happened to have the least &amp;quot;particles&amp;quot; on their leaves. 

Visted Nature Aquarium shop this afternoon and also queried the uncle about my problem, which he couldnt find any reason other than the solution i added.

This is a pic of my replanted aquarium:

----------


## PeterGwee

Don't add those stuff...[ :Grin: ] Just let nature take its course and the water will clear by itself over several days or weeks. Patience is the key..what you want is plant growth and lots would be good.

----------


## bluezing

dun look like 2ft.haha...the tank looks big.maybe ur photography skills gd.make the tank look bigger.

----------


## juggler

There's an article here: http://www.petfrd.com/forum/articles...mp;amp;catid=5

----------

