Lighting Question - New Tank

[mattmathis]

Lighting Question - New Plant Tank


Hey all! I have been keeping fish for a pretty good while with mostly good luck.

I think now I"m ready to try a planted tank. So I'm gonna try and set one up for Christmas.

I have a 10 gallon tank, an aqua clear 30(150gph), 2 bags of Fluorite, a bag of sand, and the things to make the DIY CO2.

What I don't get is the lighting.

Right now I have a 20 in florescent 17 watt fixture. Will this be enough light? I was worried about the light intensity, 17 watts just doesn't sound that bright. even for a 10 gallon tank.

I found this one but 4 WPG seems really high to start out with.

Any suggestions for lighting in this situation would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in Advance!!!

Matt

 

[mgamer20o0]

personally i would get a new hood with the screw in type bulbs and put two 14w bulbs in there. that should give you low light maybe some med light plants.

 

[ingg]

personally i would get a new hood with the screw in type bulbs and put two 14w bulbs in there. that should give you low light maybe some med light plants.

Yup.

Remember, WPG rules are about the most horrid rules to use.

Small tanks in particular show why - taken to the extreme, does 5 watts of light over a 1 gallon tank grow anything? Nope. But it is 5 wpg....

A 10 gallon tank needs roughly 60% more, in terms of equivalent wattage of light, to run the same as a 55g tank - again, with the same kind of lighting over it. It has to do with actual light intensity over a given footprint of space.

 

[jsoong]

Welcome to AA, Matt!!

You need more light per gal in smaller tanks as stated above. Since you are looking at CO2, I assume that you are aiming for high light plants. In that case, the 2x14W screwed in CF's won't be enough for you. <I used to run a 30W T12 on a 10 & that is just good enough for low light plants.>

I think you should aim for at least a 36W power compact or T5. That would get you to medium light territory, & prob. no need for CO2. You might want to double that if you are going high light. Perhaps a 2x36 W PC - you can run one light when starting out, then turn on the other when you get into higher light plants. <You can run a single 55W/65W fixture, cheaper but you won't have as much flexibility.>

Depending on your hood, you might consider a retrofit kit. It will be cheaper than getting new fixtures (or the new screwed in bulb hood.) People have good things to say about AH supply's kits, but there are many others on the market.

36 or 55 watt Bright Kits