(kinda) New Planted 10g

[kholton]

Hello everyone! So I finally got my planted tank set up the rest of the way today! I bought Cabombas, Microswords, and an Ozelot. Unfortunately however, my LFS ran out of the fish I wanted to put in the tank, and had only males of the other fish I wanted... So for not, I just got a male Mikrogeophagus ramirezi, and I'll have to wait for a female... and hopefully an Apistogramma cocatuoides pair. In addition however, I have 7 (ugg) Paracheirodon innesi (I say ugg because I wanted 6, but they threw an extra in... being a little on the OCD side, it bothers me). Haha. I have a new Deep Blue T5HE bulb... I'm debating returning it... But I figured I'd check with you guys to get an opinion on it first... It's only 8W... But it seems to provide a very bright light, even through my dark water. Would you recommend that I get something a little more high powered? I was assured that it would be fine... But I'm just a little nervous about it.

Thanks guys,

~Kaden

p.s. I'll post pictures in a few minutes.

 

[kholton]

I wanted to get a picture of the blue ram as well... But he's proving to be quite elusive at the moment... I'll try tomorrow though.

 

[Coleallensmom]

Nice fish! Like your plant choices as well..the tank looks very nicely put together. I'm thinking you will need to upgrade your lighting fixture however. Cabomba plants require more light then what you currently have. Microswords are medium-high light plants and Ozelot is also a medium light plant.

 

[kholton]

Thank you! I was feeling a little worried about the lighting situation... I'll just have to hope that they let me return it!

Thanks,

~Kaden

 

[Coleallensmom]

If you can get something that would give you about 1.5- 2W per gallon, you'd be a lot better off, I think.

 

[daileene]

+1 with alisha with the wattage...and don't forget about the kelvin of the light since you have plants already...between 5000k-10000k is good for the plants.

will follow this thread...i am still working on with my 10G as well..but yours looks very nice already.

 

[kholton]

Yeah, it's a 10,000k bulb, and although it's only 8W it's an HE bulb (high efficiency?) so it "supposedly" puts out as much light as something twice it's size... But I'm not completely sure if I buy it... but as I said, I'll be attempting to upgrade in the next week or so.

Thanks!

~Kaden

 

[daileene]

That's great....i will watch your tank out...

 

[kholton]

That's great....i will watch your tank out...

? I'm a little confused about what you meant there...

 

[daileene]

LOL i am sorry...my bad...bad grammar...i meant i will follow your journey to this build...watching the updates of this thread...is what i meant.

 

[kholton]

That's fine, don't worry. I was just confused about what you meant.