What would be a good ground cover

[Purrbox]

You answered my previous post and said that I would have to replace the fixture not just the light bulbs. Why? It is a CF fixture and the bulbs would be CF bulbs with the same connection. I am confused and honestly don't know a lot about lights. but my fixture is brand new, and I really can't aford to replace it.

Most light fixtures are designed for a specific bulb. For Fluorescent fixtures, you can easily tell this because there is a spot on both ends where the bulb is inserted and if not the correct length it simply won't fit. There is some variance between manufactures as to the exact wattage of their bulb for that length, but overall the variance isn't that great. Now even if you were to gut the fixture and spread the endcaps (the parts where the bulb connects) out further so that you could fit a larger bulb, it still probably wouldn't work. The reason is that most ballasts are only rated to provide so much power and that larger bulb is going to be trying to draw more power than it can provide. Most cases this would result in the light simply not turning on, but could cause a fire as well.

With your compact flourescent fixture, the idea is the same even though you only have a connector on one side. You may or may not have space for the 96 watt bulb, but unless the ballast is rated for the higher wattage bulb buying those 96 watt bulbs isn't going to do you any good. If your fixture is not custom built, then it is highly unlikely that the ballast will rated for larger bulbs. In this case you would want to stick with your current bulbs and Marsilea sp. would be your best option for a foreground carpet.

[mom2reds]

Thanks Joy I did have it custom built by catalina aquarium so I emailed them today because I had ask the guy to make it where I could go up in wattage if I wanted to so I will see what they say Thank you for the explanation, sometimes I am very unknowledgeable about things.

[Purrbox]

The amount of light needed to grow plants and how to upgrade lighting are some very common tripping points when you're just learning about growing plants. I made many miss steps in this area when I was starting out as well.

[mom2reds]

Thanks for the kind words, yes I am getting a little fustrated but I was looking under my hood and there is a pretty wide area around the bulbs so bigger around and longer bulbs would fit if there is enough power for them. I don't want any fires. I guess I could put my old strip lights back on there behide my new ones to add more light if I had to it just would not look as good.

[pitt420dude]

Catalina make great lights, though I don't know how easy they would be to mod to higher wattage. Maybe you ought to just ask the guy for a completley different system to accomodate higher light plants.

I knew when I first went planted that I wanted Riccia and Glosso, so shot for 4wpg right off the bat. I don't use all four bulbs right now, but will eventually and it is nice to have the option to do so for not that big of an increase in price.

[JustOneMore20]

I'm almost 100% positive you'll need another ballast to run higher wattage bulbs. Most ballasts are made for a certain max wattage and won't run more than that. If you had a ballast that would run 96 watts or 2 96w lights, then you wouldn't be able to use 55w or 65w bulbs in them because it would try to push 96 watts out of each (or something to that effect). The only exception is 55 and 65w bulbs. They are interchangeable and if you put a 55w bulb in a 65w fixture/ballast, then it will push out 65 watts...no problem.

Hard to explain and understand (for me atleast), but hopefully that helps some.

If you had the room over the tank, 2 96w fixtures would have been better. It would still be medium light and you'd still have some plant limitations, but its better than the 2 65w fixtures. Even better than that would have been T5 HO (high output) fixtures, which have better penetration in tall tanks.

I wouldn't suggest trying HC with 2x96w.....I just don't think it would do well at all. It tends to brown and die in under about 3wpg and without co2/ferts. It also grows best IMO in a nutrient rich substrate (not sure what yours is...).

Since you already have the 65w fixtures, you should just get plants that will grow well under them. You could try Java moss on rocks and line they up in part of the foreground to have a unified section, I guess, of Java moss. Wisteria is a stem plant that can be "trained" to grow horizontally. Play short pieces of it in the foreground and trim it when it gets too tall.....eventually it will get the picture. You should have enough light for that. You could try HM (Hemianthus micranthemoides), which is a bigger version of HC, but I'm not convinced it would do well, especially if the tank is tall. It would be worth trying though....just don't let it get shaded.

[mom2reds]

Thanks for the info.

[happygirl65]

You can even use hygro as a ground cover I did it once and it looked pretty neat.

[pitt420dude]

Originally Posted by happygirl65

You can even use hygro as a ground cover I did it once and it looked pretty neat.

How?

I ask because I'm trying to get a "carpet" but I want it on my back wall.

I got some HC, (or is it HM, I forget at the moment, either way thanks justonemore20!) in between two pieces of crochet (sp?) netting, and it is just now starting to poke out through. I guess I could just sort of lean this up against the back wall and keep splitting and dividing it up until it's really lush.

Carpet plants don't "need" soil right? Most of their nutrients they can get from the water right?

[happygirl65]

Well when I used hygro as a carpet I took a long stem (or three) and layed it dow on the substrate, pushed it under in a few spots and soon the roots grew in ans held it there. (this was with a plain river gravel substrate) it did get pretty thick and very green. Plus due to the length and how fast it grows it filled in quickly. By the time it grew in it was about 2 inches tall from doing that. I might have a pic somewhere...I will try to digit up.