Do I have enough lighting?

[FishCrazyBenBOMB]

I got a 15watt flourestent heat type bulb on top of my 5 gallon planted aquarium. All i'm going is dwarf hair grass. And maybe later on some mid-lvl plants in the back.


Is that enough lighting?

 

[Purrbox]

I'm not sure what you mean by a heat type bulb, however I doubt that 15 watts is going to be enough for what you're wanting to do. I'm running 36 watts over my 5.5 gallon, and I wouldn't even call it high light based on plant growth. You need more light to hit the various lighting levels on these smaller aquariums. Dwarf Hair Grass requires a lot of light to grow well, and generally isn't a good plant for getting a planted aquarium balanced since it is easily over run by algae. You'd be better off starting with fast growing stem plants or floating plants. Once the aquarium has matured you could give the hair grass a try.

 

[neilanh]

I agree. YOu could give it a shot and see, but the WPG rule breaks down for small tanks. I run 26W on my 2.5g tank, but I've never tried hairgrass in that setup. Perhaps I should...

 

[FishCrazyBenBOMB]

I see. Well if it is running by the wpg rule i'm running like 3 wpg. But yeah this was like the only plant i wanted to start with because i love it. Once I get the carpet look it will look like the lawn outside basically. Can't wait!

 

[FishCrazyBenBOMB]

I'm not sure what you mean by a heat type bulb, however I doubt that 15 watts is going to be enough for what you're wanting to do. I'm running 36 watts over my 5.5 gallon, and I wouldn't even call it high light based on plant growth. You need more light to hit the various lighting levels on these smaller aquariums. Dwarf Hair Grass requires a lot of light to grow well, and generally isn't a good plant for getting a planted aquarium balanced since it is easily over run by algae. You'd be better off starting with fast growing stem plants or floating plants. Once the aquarium has matured you could give the hair grass a try.

Ok thanks. But it seems like it is actually doing pretty well. I'm getting some runners, and the grass thats already there is growing quite well. And i'm not getting an algae yet. They could just be from the 5 ghost shrimp doing there work or something. But it all seems pretty well actually. I'm going to problly just continue with what i'm doing, and if it gets bad I will get rid of it. And plants with leafs and stuff. How do you trim them? Do you just cut the whole leaf off or what??

 

[Purrbox]

And plants with leafs and stuff. How do you trim them? Do you just cut the whole leaf off or what??

Depends on whether it is a rosette plant (swords and crypts) or a stem plant (rotalas and ludwigias). With rosette plants you remove the leaves as close to the base of the plant as possible without harming the other leaves. For stem plants you simply cut them to the desired height and then replant the tops if desired.

 

[FishCrazyBenBOMB]

Depends on whether it is a rosette plant (swords and crypts) or a stem plant (rotalas and ludwigias). With rosette plants you remove the leaves as close to the base of the plant as possible without harming the other leaves. For stem plants you simply cut them to the desired height and then replant the tops if desired.

Ok Thanks. Oh and I was trying to post an image and when I put the image url in the insert image thing it just comes up with a red x. Help please?