lighting question

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malloc

Aquarium Advice Regular
Joined
Mar 7, 2007
Messages
67
Location
Bellingham, WA
Hello, I would like to start a couple of plants in my 20g tank, but I don't have a lot of money right now. The light I have now is the fluorescent fixture that came with the tank with a 15w bulb. I was wondering if I would need to replace the entire fixture, or can I just get a brighter bulb to get me to a low light environment? If I can just get a bulb, what would be a few good starter plants that would work well in low light?
 
Unfortunately, the ballast is what makes the bulb.

You can however buy double strip lights fairly cheap in the US. Petsmart has them for a fairly light price tag. 35-40$ and it comes with 2 suitable bulbs.

As for plants, Java Fern, Anubias, Anacharis are generally good starter plants, for a better list, try http://www.plantgeek.net/ and search by light level to see a list. Some of these may be very hard to find.
 
Thank you for the info, that's what I was afraid of =)

I'll have to wait a little while to get started on this then.... maybe a good summer project =)

Unfortunately I'm moving in a couple weeks & am poor due to related expenses... I think my gf would kill me if I started buying more equipment for the fish now, lol.
 
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