10 gallon Lighting

[Rxblade123]

I read the minimum light threshold page in rexgrigg's site and now I'm skeptical that the lighting hood I want to get will be good enough for my 10 gallon. The lighting hood I want to get is the Current USA Satellite 20" 40 Watt Power Compact Fixture-Single Strip W/Lunar Light . I know if I use it, it would be 4 WPG, but still. Can anybody comment on this?

 

[azn_fishy55]

4 wpg is really high and you could keep very high light plants with that,I say go for it.But keep in mind with this high lighting you will have to supply micro and macro nutrients as well as CO2 to keep the plants on top of algae.HTH

 

[gfink]

I have 30 watts of normal florescents over my 10 gal, and it behaves more like 2 wpg. I am growing:

Rotala Indica, stargrass, dwarf hairgrass, microsword, Pearl weed, Telanthera Rosefolia, and cabomba. Everything but the pearl weed is doing well. No CO2, but I do add a little excel.

 

[Purrbox]

Browsed through my Natural Aquarium World Books and it looks like Amano uses about 80watts on this size of Aquarium (35 Liters and 56 Liters). Based on this I would guess that 40 Watts is going to give you somewhere around medium lighting. To be on the safe side I'd probably add DIY CO2, that way if it's closer to med-high lighting you'll be ahead of the algae. You should still be able to grow a wide variety of plants especially since a 10 gallon is a shorter tank.

Start with mostly medium light plants and try a few higer light plants to see how they do. If they do well you can try some more. Unfortunately it's a bit of a guessing game with the smaller tanks as to how good the light actually is. Experimentation is the best way to figure it out.

 

[czcz]

40w PC over a ten is solid med-high lighting. Arguably high light but you may run into a couple plants that want more as Purrbox suggested. CO2 will be necessary. HTH