So where do you get adequate lighting?

[marcus russo]

also if you have a screw in type (old school) fixture they now have [acronym:f610ac28a1="Power compact fluorescent"]pc[/acronym:f610ac28a1] screw in types that are quite good

[dr_girlfriend]

like marcus russo said, getting [acronym:3426b5ed73="Power compact fluorescent"]pc[/acronym:3426b5ed73] bulbs for a incandescent hood is way cheaper than buying a whole new fixture or a retrofit kit. for low light plant i think that would be more than sufficient. if you wanted to boost the wattage you would get out of that, you could put some kind of reflective material above the bulbs like mylar from hydroponic supply.

[TomK2]

Thanks for the advice everyone. I know it will work out when I try it! I sure seems easier to find lighting for a 24 inch tank compared to a 20 inch 10 [acronym:e940af4752="Gallon"]gal[/acronym:e940af4752]. If my breeding tank and [acronym:e940af4752="quarantine or quart depending on context"]QT[/acronym:e940af4752] stay busy........

[frog girl]

Plants suck up the same nutrients that your filter does (except they also take nitrates out of the water) so a cheap [acronym:9bca5ec413="Hang On Back"]HOB[/acronym:9bca5ec413] should work fine unless you plan on a huge bioload.

I have a 90 [acronym:9bca5ec413="Gallons per hour"]gph[/acronym:9bca5ec413] [acronym:9bca5ec413="Hang On Back"]HOB[/acronym:9bca5ec413] on my 60 gallon hex (low light 1.3 watts) that is well planted & it does fine. I have put in a [acronym:9bca5ec413="Do it yourself"]DIY[/acronym:9bca5ec413] [acronym:9bca5ec413="Carbon dioxide"]CO2[/acronym:9bca5ec413] rig but my plants grew well before that. They are just growing a bit faster now & are pearling.

[SittingDuck]

On a Side note....I can't seem to find any lights with adequate Wattage outside of the Coralife line...My light can take four 36 inch florescent tubes, but the most I've seen for a 36" light (outside of Coralife) is approx 40 Watts. My light fixture has an option to have all four lights on at once, or only 2 at a time (Fronts or Back) and I think the design behind it was for some black lights to be on at night, and day lights on during the day....Anyways, that's off topic.

So, outside of the Coralife lights (which are pretty expensive) is there another that is more than 40Watts? Also, aren't Coralife lights geared towards a Reef aquarium? Is the spectrum on a light more important than the wattage? Some are rated at 10,000K, others at 8,500K...

[malkore]

All 36" fluorescents are going to be about 30 watts. The standad is 10watts per foot of tube length. I've never seen a 40watt 36" normal output fluorescent.

Coralife makes both marine and freshwater light fixtures and bulbs. If you're looking at their Aqualights, make sure it's a Freshwater Aqualight, in a green box. If the box is red, its meant for a marine tank.

[kaaikop]

I've got 2 Coralife units for Freshwater (36" long, 2 x 96W each).
Got them from captivereefs.com, good prices, good service.
Don't forget the bulbs also lasts twice as long as standard neon tubes (1 year).

just my 2 cents.

[SnyperP]

My AHsupply 2x13 did not come with two switches. Also i feel that 2.6wpg is quite a bit of light and will need co2 in a 10g. It's not enough to grow much of the extremely high light plants (such as cambomba furcata or rotola magenta var narrow) but it is enough grow glosso horizontal provided there is enough co2 and not too many shading plants.

If you're looking to grow low light plants such as the ones you listed the screw -in [acronym:cdc980efbf="Compact Flourescent"]cf[/acronym:cdc980efbf] bulbs might be what you're looking for. I tried that when i started as well and did not like the coloration at all. Hopefully you can find some decent bulbs

Another option would be buying a 15w t8 fixture available at most [acronym:cdc980efbf="Local Fish Store"]lfs[/acronym:cdc980efbf]. I imagine the price would be higher than most places come from a [acronym:cdc980efbf="Local Fish Store"]lfs[/acronym:cdc980efbf] though.

Just research what ever you're going to decide to do. Overkill is not a good thing in planted tanks. The more light you have in a tank increases the maintence and also increases the likehood of throwing your tnak off balance (algae infestation).