possible new light

[Irish.OG87]

New light: Amazon.com: Zoo Med AquaSun T5-HO Double Light Linear Fluorescent Hood, 24-Inch: Kitchen & Dining
Bulbs ill be using:
Amazon.com: Zoo Med Ultra Sun Trichromatic Super Daylight Bulb T5 High Output 24 Watts, 22-Inch: Kitchen & Dining

Amazon.com: Zoo Med Flora Sun Plant Bulb T5 High Output 24 Watts, 22-Inch: Kitchen & Dining

I have a 36g bf and use ecocomplete soil.
Is this light and bulbs gonna do it for me to grow hairgrass, micro sword, and other runners?
I'm going to be replacing my ML reef capable led light fixture, and the light i replace it with I'm hoping its the last light ill ever have to buy for my tank.

 

[fort384]

Check out fishneedit.com. Their dual bulb T5HOs are reasonably priced, and they come with bulbs. A dual bulb fixture will be a little bit on the low side for higher light plants. If you really want to make sure you have enough light, I would recommend the 4 bulb fixture and run 3 of the 4 bulbs as 6500-10000K bulbs, and the last one can be actinic. If you want to go nuts, than all 4 bulbs can be 6500-10000K bulbs. Keep in mind, anything over 2 bulbs will require CO2 injection if you want to keep algae in check while growing high light plants successfully. The 2 bulb fixture would put you on the edge of cO2 requirement, but you could get by without it.

 

[eco23]

I have the same Zoo-Med fixture (but a larger one) on my 46 gallon. I run a daylight bulb and an actinic...I don't have the bulb designed for plant growth. In my tank I have Vals, Rotala Rotofundia, Water Sprite, Ambulia, Java Moss and a Marimo Ball. Everything grows like a weed and is super healthy, except the Vals which seem to get a bit brown if I don't leave the light on long enough. I don't run any co2 or even dose ferts, though I'll probably get some root tabs for the Vals.

Since we know each other outside of the site and I know you don't want to get too deep with co2 and basically want to keep it simple with your plants...wouldn't it be a better (and much cheaper) option to replace some of your more demanding plants with lower light ones?

A couple questions I'm curious about myself as for your fixture (please forgive my questions...plants are a mystery to me)-

- If you were to keep your current fixture (Marineland Reef Capable) and remove the demanding plants and replace them with low requirement ones...would the issue of BBA and hair algae still occur?

- If you were to replace your light with a duel T-5 fixture, but run one plant growth bulb and one actinic (for looks), would that be considered low-med light which would be capable of supporting the other non-demanding plants you have but eliminate the algae problem? (we have mostly the same plants I listed above).

JMO, but I know you don't want to get too involved with this stuff, and in my mind is seems simpler to suit your plants to your light (or an inexpensive upgrade), rather than suiting your lights to inexpensive plants.

 

[Irish.OG87]

noob light person here....the actinic bulb is the pretty blue bulb you run at night correct?

 

[fort384]

well, you wouldn't want to run it at night. Actinics are still fairly bright. But they do not provide usable light to plants. You are thinking of moonlights, which generally in this day and age are LED lights.

 

[eco23]

noob light person here....the actinic bulb is the pretty blue bulb you run at night correct?

Yeah, my actinic is cool to run in the evenings after I turn off the daylight...but I shut it off before bed.

I personally wouldn't let lunar lights make or break the deal. There's some really cool DIY versions out there. Plus, you can get just buy a lunar strip on eBay for like $8