Sillyfishies
Aquarium Advice Addict
What wattage of CFLs do I need for medium-highlight on a standard 10g?
CFLs for 10g?
- Thread starter Sillyfishies
- Start date
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Mattyfelts
Aquarium Advice Addict
bump I also would like to know!
bud29
Aquarium Advice Addict
I think one 23w or 2 x 13w would probably do the trick.
Mattyfelts
Aquarium Advice Addict
oh I saw some at dollarama. Ima gonna have to pick some up
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Sillyfishies
Aquarium Advice Addict
I've had so many different suggestion. I've seen people say 2x23w will be highlight, some that say 2x13w would be low lowlight, and some that say 2x13w would be medium-high.
Have you personally tried it out yet?
bud29
Aquarium Advice Addict
I have 2 x 13w over my 10g. I get a bit of algae since I never dose, it is my "wild" tank that I just let run free. It never really takes over though, partially because my shrimp help keep it in check. For a week or two I added a 23w CFL in addition to my current lighting and it was way too much. I only have crypts, anubias, and hydrocotyle in there, however I could probably grow some stem plants like rotala or ludwigia if I wanted to. Here is a PAR chart, if this is correct you would more than enough light with just one 23w:
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Sillyfishies
Aquarium Advice Addict
I would have a VERY 1-sided tank I'd prefer to have a light on eachside. I might just do 2x23 watts and run short photoperiods.
bud29
Aquarium Advice Addict
2 x 23 would be way too much IMO. You can get 2 smaller clip-on dome lamps and run two 13w bulbs, that would probably be better.
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Sillyfishies
Aquarium Advice Addict
I'm debating. You get more par with bulbs facing down then laying on the side.
Mattyfelts
Aquarium Advice Addict
I'm goin to buy 2x13w and See how they do. If u wanna send me a pm I can inform you on progress etc
bud29
Aquarium Advice Addict
With the clamp-on lights I'm talking about you wouldn't have them facing to the side. At most you would have a very very small angle, nothing that would affect PAR much. Commercial Electric 75-Watt Incandescent Clamp Light-CE-200PDQ at The Home Depot
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Sillyfishies
Aquarium Advice Addict
Currently I have a hood that makes them lay on their side, cutting down on PAR.
With my ten gallon, I took everything off of the hood. Once I had the hood completely disassembled I spray painted the inside flat white. Even the reflectors are out. If I remember correctly, flat white has more reflectivity than brushed metal. I get a great use out of my two 13 watt spiral cfls. More light is being reflected into the tank rather than being absorbed into the black plastic. Just throwing my two cents in the mix, food for thought and all that. 
aqua_chem
Aquarium Advice Addict
There's two types of CFLs to consider:
The first two on the left in that picture are "U-tube" bulbs, and they give out more light on their sides (ie, higher light if placed horizontal vs vertical). The opposite is true for spirals (furthers right on that picture). The PAR chart Bud posted is for spirals in an aluminum reflector, which can be quite high light indeed. A 10w U-tube on it's side will probably put out more than a 13w spiral on its side, so keep that in mind. Also, the larger wattage spirals sometimes don't fit well into the hoods.
What are you trying to do? You might start out with 10w Us and see if that's enough.
The first two on the left in that picture are "U-tube" bulbs, and they give out more light on their sides (ie, higher light if placed horizontal vs vertical). The opposite is true for spirals (furthers right on that picture). The PAR chart Bud posted is for spirals in an aluminum reflector, which can be quite high light indeed. A 10w U-tube on it's side will probably put out more than a 13w spiral on its side, so keep that in mind. Also, the larger wattage spirals sometimes don't fit well into the hoods.
What are you trying to do? You might start out with 10w Us and see if that's enough.
OP
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Sillyfishies
Aquarium Advice Addict
With my ten gallon, I took everything off of the hood. Once I had the hood completely disassembled I spray painted the inside flat white. Even the reflectors are out. If I remember correctly, flat white has more reflectivity than brushed metal. I get a great use out of my two 13 watt spiral cfls. More light is being reflected into the tank rather than being absorbed into the black plastic. Just throwing my two cents in the mix, food for thought and all that.
What type of plants do you have. Ill have-
Dwarf hairgrass
Rotala mini butterfly
Java moss
Mayaca fluvialtis
A myriophyllium plant of some sort
Undecided midground plant.
UPDATE! I already have 2 10w U-bulbs. 1 10w 6500k which is almost brand new and 1 10w color max bulb that idk how old it is.
wildroseofky
Aquarium Advice Addict
I have two 27 watt, 6500k spiral CFL's ten inch metal clamp lights on my 10 gallon. I use diy CO2 and dry fertilizers in it. I have medium to high light plants and no algae problem. I leave the lights on an average of 10 hours a day. I don't have a timer for that tank yet. It is doing great.
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Sillyfishies
Aquarium Advice Addict
See that's what confuses me. Some people say that 2 13w will get me high light and then there's people that say 23-27w is high light. It confuses me.
wildroseofky
Aquarium Advice Addict
It is confusing. No situation is exactly the same. What works in one may not work in another. I read for months trying to figure out what light to get. I finally decided to just buy the most wattage bulbs I could find and see what happens. I figured at around $12 for three bulbs I could change them if I had any problems. I recently bought a dual T5HO light for my 29 gallon. I kept looking at a quad light from the same company and wish I had went with it. I kept being told the dual would be too much light but now wish I would have given the quad a chance. I have never regretted going for more light and regretted getting less.
Billbug68
Aquarium Advice Addict
Two 13 watts is usually what I recommend. I've used it before and I'm using them now. They're usually best in cone style desk lamps like was mentioned before. I see this all the time, people want more and more high light, and think its gonna grow their plants like mad. Well yes, but you also make it extremely hard to balance the tank and keep algae at bay. I remember reading in a thread on another forum, Tom Barr asserted that 30-40 par at substrate is plenty to grow almost any plant. The key component that will make your plants grow well is co2 not ridiculous amounts of light, accompanied by proper fertilization, of course. 50+ watts over a 10 gallon is ridiculous, IMO. Maybe some of you had made those 23-27 watt bulbs work, but I doubt you didn't battle algae, if not BBA I'm sure you had GSA on the glass, I can almost guarantee that.
