Newbie lighting question

[slayer666]

Hello all!

I have purchased used 29G aquarium setup that had Perfecto Manufacturing light fixture with Perfect-a-lamp F20T10AQ fluorescent bulb. It looks like fixture and perhaps even bulb was manufactured in Dec of 2000.
So, I setup freshwater aquarium and added total of 13 fish and 6 live plants. It's been 4 weeks since I started and fish seems to be doing pretty well, but plants seem to be slowly loosing their green color and simply dying.
I figured that bulb might need to be replaced with something that gives more light to plants but looking around there's no T10 bulbs to be found anywhere.
The closest I could find is T8 and local store recommended Aqua-Glo type for my setup.
I'm wondering if newer T8 bulb will work in my light fixture provided that it has older type ballast with starter or would I need to buy new fixture and bulb or perhaps even LED fixture?

Hoping for some advice, thank you!!!

 

[Fishguy2727]

Just get a ho t5 two bulb fixture with individual reflectors.

 

[fort384]

First off what kind of plants are we talking about? That will determine what kind of lighting you need.

I don't think it would be a good idea to cram a t8 into a t10 fixture. The wattages won't be the same, hence the ballast probably won't perform.

 

[slayer666]

Unfortunately I have no idea what those plants are called. Shame on me.
What would you guys suggest as far as new fixture and bulbs are concerned?
Canopy I have is all black plastic one with cut out for light fixture with glass in it sized 27 3/4" X 4".
Thanks to all advices.

 

[fort384]

it depends on what kind of plants you have and what kind of plants you want to keep. Can you post a picture of the tank? Depending on what you have, lighting might not even be the problem.

 

[slayer666]

Here's some pics:

 

[fort384]

It looks to me like a few of the plants you have are not aquatic... they will not survive submerged regardless of the lighting you use.

For low light plants, you need around 20-30 watts of florescent lighting over your tank at a minimum. The bulbs need to have a color temperature of 6500K-10000K.

 

[slayer666]

Well, all plants were purchased at local fish stores and looked healthy initially. After couple of weeks I started to notice brown spots and and decline its health.
They were purchased from two different stores but they all exhibit similar problems.
Please note that the brightness of the pictures was achieved by long exposure of my camera, it is not that bright in real life.
Thanks for helping!!!