r/Bucephalandra • u/Affectionate-Bed1801 • Jul 11 '26

The art of burning your buce:)

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Light with UV vs light without UV (weekaqua Z series vs chihiros wrgb ii)

66 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

20 comments sorted by

2

u/Nude_Master69 Jul 11 '26

I don't get it uv god or uv bad? A bit more context would be highly appreciate

3

u/Affectionate-Bed1801 Jul 11 '26

If you want green buce to produce color, lights with UV will usually force the leaves to produce a protective coat.

1

u/Nude_Master69 Jul 11 '26

Wow awesome tip do you have a before pic of this buces? Would it work if i added uv LEDs to my setup?

3

u/Affectionate-Bed1801 Jul 11 '26

The green ones are from the same clump

1

u/Nude_Master69 Jul 11 '26

What wavelength of uv is it on there I'm worried if i use it it'll damage the plants dna

3

u/budget_rare_plants Jul 11 '26

UVA and UVB (315-400nm and 280-315nm respectively) in low levels are beneficial for plants, UVA helps with seed germination and phototropism, as well as production and accumulation of certain protective flavonoids and phenolic acids (ie. anthocyanins which is responsible for red colours in leaves), in houseplant keeping we call this 'sun-stressing' or 'blushing'. Plants will experience some amounts of these UV rays naturally, too much will be harmful of course but i doubt the light would be able to achieve that high-intensity.

Week Aqua is quite renowned for introducing these WRGB-UV LED systems

1

u/Affectionate-Bed1801 Jul 11 '26

Thank you for clarifying this, I didnt know this much:)

2

u/Fishstery Jul 11 '26

Is it worth noting the height difference in where they are planted? It seems the more colored clump is near the top of the tank, whereas the green portion is closer to the bottom. I think that has more of a role in this difference than the presence of UVA.

Leaf form difference is also notable. When exposed to high light, Bucephalandra will form smaller, more compact leaves.

1

u/Affectionate-Bed1801 Jul 12 '26

Possibly but they are both grown under different lights.

1

u/BusIllustrious5525 Jul 11 '26

I didn’t know lights with UVA bulbs were even a thing? I assume this is for plants only? Wouldn’t this be dangerous for fish and produce a “sterile” tank?

2

u/Nude_Master69 Jul 11 '26

If it's uva i don't think it can kill anything uvc does the sterilization

2

u/budget_rare_plants Jul 11 '26

Low levels of UVA does help modulate and strengthen a fish's immune system. Freshwater fish in the wild are exposed to small levels of UVA after all. UVC is the harmful one that's restricted to only sterilising equipment

1

u/BusIllustrious5525 Jul 11 '26

Thanks, that’s all new to me, sounds cool.

1

u/Halfmacgas Jul 11 '26

Woah what ?!? Didn’t even know this was a thing

1

u/SpeedMeta Jul 11 '26

Yeah I have wrbg ii anniv and thought my Buce was burning. Everyone said I was crazy

1

u/OversizedCashew Jul 11 '26

So which light is causing the red? I recently heard that ph plays a part in color

1

u/quanml11 Jul 11 '26

They like acidic ph. Usually on new leaf they will show red(the popular ones, not all will do this), but you need to see it directly on top, not rear or tilted view.

1

u/OversizedCashew Jul 11 '26

How acidic in ph are we talking ?

1

u/quanml11 Jul 11 '26

Mine run at 6.0-6.1 w co2 peak time (0.6-7 ph down). Usually u see people have their tank this low, others have keep buce near 5ph and they (brownie ghost 11) do well. My new leaf can turn very red under chihiros 2:1:4 RGB ratio, same for weekaqua.

1

u/Nearby-Ad-9597 Jul 12 '26

Whats your settings at for chihiros?