I want to uses this lights, but can i?

[JDogg]

ok... i COULD pick up a incandecent hood and screw in CF bulb, like i am running in my DP tank.

However i have 3 18" T8 Fixtures i would realy perfer to make use of...

10 Gallon Tank would like to just pick up a glass cover and run 2 18" T8 bulbs over it. so will 30 watts of T8 Florecents bulbs be enough over a 10 gallon, In your opinion to keep most common plants alive. i can easly run DIY CO2 on that tank and/or excel and i have all the usual dry ferts. this is my "clippings tank" so you can see My info for all the species of plants that might end up in this tank. it is also going to become home to a pair of Apistogramma agassizii as seen HERE

[SparKy697]

As you surely know, I'm not any level of expert on this subject. But I thought I'd just think out loud.

This would give you 3 Watts/gallon or more. Being that it's a ten gallon the light source is quite close to the substrate and therefore the plants. It seems to me that you would be getting a pretty good amount of light into the tank with this setup.

As I research, it seems that even the plants that require high light levels list 3 - 5 wpg as acceptable levels.

I'm curious to see what the experts have to say because I'm in the middle of cycling a 10 gallon for the exact same purpose, plants and snails mostly.

[JDogg]

Originally Posted by SparKy697

As you surely know, I'm not any level of expert on this subject. But I thought I'd just think out loud.

This would give you 3 Watts/gallon or more. Being that it's a ten gallon the light source is quite close to the substrate and therefore the plants. It seems to me that you would be getting a pretty good amount of light into the tank with this setup.

As I research, it seems that even the plants that require high light levels list 3 - 5 wpg as acceptable levels.

I'm curious to see what the experts have to say because I'm in the middle of cycling a 10 gallon for the exact same purpose, plants and snails mostly.

the problem is that the wpg rule does not work as well on smaller tanks... and i do not fully understand it with small tanks.

EDIT: ok did a little bit of searching and found my old thread from when i was looking to light my DP tank

in THIS THREAD, is this Quote and link

Originally Posted by Purrbox

Yep. Dwarf Puffers are indeed strictly FW. About the only ones that are. The rest are either brackish or SW.

For an inexpensive solution, you could pick up a incadescent fixture and use a couple of screwin CF's. I'd say that either a pair of 15watt or 20watt bulbs would be right in line with what you are planning to do. There's a fair amount of light lost to restrike with these bulbs, which is why I'm recommending a bit higher the Wizard~Of~Ozz's guide suggests.

according the the link purrbox provided 30 watts of T8 light should put me at moderate light on a 10 gallon. anyone agree or disagree with this?

so what i am thinking should be do able, Right?

sparky-you should be able to use that same link to figure out your lights too

[SparKy697]

EDIT
I guess that if you are going to refer to a link it helps to post it
https://www.drsfostersmith.com/produ...=20245&catid=3

These came up in another thread and I was thinking of using them but they are a bit small.

I'll read that link, thanks

[ryan]

you will be at moderate light and you can definitly use those lights ive just set up the exact same setup and it works great . hope the tank turns out good.

[Purrbox]

I'd say that you would do very well at growing low and medium light plants with that pair of fixtures without needing to worry about CO2. If you wanted to try to cram the third fixture over the tank and add CO2 you would be able to grow most high light plants as well.

[JDogg]

Originally Posted by Purrbox

I'd say that you would do very well at growing low and medium light plants with that pair of fixtures without needing to worry about CO2. If you wanted to try to cram the third fixture over the tank and add CO2 you would be able to grow most high light plants as well.

i might try to cram all three on, but i think it will be tight.

on a side note...if anyone is interested in following the evolution of this tank in pictures i have a aquascaping thread HERE

[Glenc]

Try to get all three on there if you can. I am currently running three 15wt T-8's on this 10 gallon, plants are doing great. I got them all on there by taking the third hood apart, put just the bulb and tranformer up there! They all sit on a glass top. I've run 65 wts CF on this tank at one time, growth was faster but not any healthier. Get some pretty good pearling with 3 T-8's as well.

[JDogg]

Originally Posted by Glenc

Try to get all three on there if you can. I am currently running three 15wt T-8's on this 10 gallon, plants are doing great. I got them all on there by taking the third hood apart, put just the bulb and tranformer up there! They all sit on a glass top. I've run 65 wts CF on this tank at one time, growth was faster but not any healthier. Get some pretty good pearling with 3 T-8's as well.

do you have a picture of how you did that?

[Glenc]

lol, I don't have a pic of that set-up, never took one! When I had three normal size hoods I unscrewed the white reflector assembly and removed it from the third black hood cover. I then took tin snips and cut away as much of the white reflector as I could, leaving basically a small white piece of the reflector around the bulb, transformer and wires exposed attached to the top with electrical tape. Destroyed the original hood, possible fire hazard, but I got that third light on the tank! It worked great. I gave that cut-up light fixture to mr funktastic a while back, I believe he made a hood out of it again! I am getting the third light on there now by taping two 18" single 12 dollar fluorescent fixtures from home depot together, facing each other, running one normal size hood with them. All on a glass top. Ain't very pretty, but it gets the job done!