moneywort

[Phoenixphire55]

So for some reason I just bought some moneywort at petsmart and put it in my tank. The substrate is white sand. My lighting is just your standard hood light (it came with the hood). It's bright enough to grow algae. I know nothing whatsoever about lighting or growing plants, and the light I have has no numbers or anything on it. Oh, tank temp is about 78F. Is there any way the moneywort will survive?

I bought it cuz it said it needs moderate light and they had no plants labelled low light.

p.s. when people have tried to explain lighting to me in the past I didn't get it, so if you want to that's great but pretend that I'm 10 years old if you want me to understand.

 

[Purrbox]

What size aquarium. Can you measure the bulb, length and width? With that information we can give you some more specific information.

Most standard lighting that comes with aquariums generally provides low to very low light. They're meant to allow you to see your fish and minimize algae. Allowing the plant to float will improve it's chances of survival, but probably won't give you the look you want.

 

[Phoenixphire55]

The aquarium is 25 gallons and from top to bottom it is 20 inches deep. The light is about an inch wide by 16 inches long. I just noticed it faintly says 15 watts on it.

 

[black hills tj]

The aquarium is 25 gallons and from top to bottom it is 20 inches deep. The light is about an inch wide by 16 inches long. I just noticed it faintly says 15 watts on it.

Sounds like stock T-8 lighting. Although you'll be able to grow the very low light plants, don't get your hopes up.

 

[Purrbox]

With those measurements, 15 watts would be about right. You're looking at very low light.

To have a better chance of growing plants you would want to upgrade to a fixture that gives you 25-50 watts. This would give you low to medium light which would still be fairly low maintenance. You could go for something in the 75-100 watt range as well, but then you'd need to get into carbon supplementation (Flourish Excel or CO2 injection) and full fledged fertilization. 50-75 watts is a grey area that may or may not need the carbon supplementation and fertilization. All of these recommendations are based on using standard fluorescent lighting, if you go with either Compact Fluorescent or T5's you wouldn't needs as much light to acheive the same goals.

 

[mgamer20o0]

another option would be those screw in cfl bulbs they sell. in smaller tanks many people use them. if you dont want to upgrade the light i would try anubias java ferns and java moss and go from there.

 

[Phoenixphire55]

thanks for the advice. I may get some anubias then. Would anacharis work equally well? I will look into getting better lights. Would any of my fish be bothered by brighter lights?

 

[Phoenixphire55]

possibly silly question: If I want to get a higher wattage bulb like 25-50 watts, do I have to buy a whole new hood? or would I be able to find a 25 to 50 watt bulb that would fit into my existing hood?

 

[Zagz]

I think I see a new planted addict coming. LOL if you keep going you will end up with better lights and a heavily planted tank!

 

[Purrbox]

thanks for the advice. I may get some anubias then. Would anacharis work equally well? I will look into getting better lights. Would any of my fish be bothered by brighter lights?

With your current lighting I would recommend sticking to Anubias, Crypts, Java Moss, and Java Fern. Anacharis may work out, but I wouldn't count on it.

possibly silly question: If I want to get a higher wattage bulb like 25-50 watts, do I have to buy a whole new hood? or would I be able to find a 25 to 50 watt bulb that would fit into my existing hood?

The only fixture that would work with is a incadescent fixture using the screw in compact flourescents. With standard fluorescents the higher powered bulbs are also longer (approximately 10 watts for every foot of length). One way to get more power out of your existing fixture would be to wire in a new ballast and run more power through the existing bulb (ODNO - Over Drive Normal Output). While this does give off more light, it also shortens the life of the bulb.

 

[Phoenixphire55]

Ok cool, I'm gonna try anubias. I think they're pretty. When I upgrade to a bigger tank in the not so near future I'll make sure to get better lights. And yes Zagz, I'm definitely really into plants