So, after working through several ideas for inexpensive lighting upgrades to let me grow higher-light plants, I think I've a solution.
A ten gallon tank. This gives me a place I can try out new things without harming the main 45 gallon tank, and for much less expense and work.
My first question, since I think it's reasonable to guess that CFL's have been tried by someone before- My 10 gallon from a garage sale came with a light fixture fitted for 2 30watt incandescents. As my experiance with CFL's previously suggested, I was able to plug 2 75-watt equilivent CFL's (Which draws the equilivent of a 20 watt incandescent) into the fixture and they work fine.
Now, it appears to me that this could be wa-aaay too much light for a 10 gallon- I'm looking at the equilivent of 150 watts of incandescent, or 15 WPG. But... the WPG rule was developed for Flourscent lights, so perhaps the correct figure I should be using is what they actually draw, 20 watts. If it helps, the lights I am testing with (not the ones I will actually use) are rated at 1200 lumens each.
Now, I beleive the second method (Rating each bulb as 20watts) is the correct one- Can anyone else offer me a sanity check on this? Or any tips and tricks from previous CFL experiances?
My second question- I intend to use this as a QT/Hospital tank in addition to a high(ish) light planted tank. While I shouldn't actually need much biological filtration- The heavily planted tank should take care of much of that- I do plan to keep some MTS and shrimp in the tank full time. The shrimp may well become a breeding population with excess being transferred to the main tank as live food, and also provide some ammonia to keep whatever bacteria I may desire alive.
But, anyway, the point is that I beleive that most parasites/etc that affect fish will not affect the invertrabrates I plan on keeping in this tank- Specifically, that most common one, Ich. Am I correct, or am I misremembering something?
Oh, and since this is my first real post, although I've lurked quite a while, hello everyone.
A ten gallon tank. This gives me a place I can try out new things without harming the main 45 gallon tank, and for much less expense and work.
My first question, since I think it's reasonable to guess that CFL's have been tried by someone before- My 10 gallon from a garage sale came with a light fixture fitted for 2 30watt incandescents. As my experiance with CFL's previously suggested, I was able to plug 2 75-watt equilivent CFL's (Which draws the equilivent of a 20 watt incandescent) into the fixture and they work fine.
Now, it appears to me that this could be wa-aaay too much light for a 10 gallon- I'm looking at the equilivent of 150 watts of incandescent, or 15 WPG. But... the WPG rule was developed for Flourscent lights, so perhaps the correct figure I should be using is what they actually draw, 20 watts. If it helps, the lights I am testing with (not the ones I will actually use) are rated at 1200 lumens each.
Now, I beleive the second method (Rating each bulb as 20watts) is the correct one- Can anyone else offer me a sanity check on this? Or any tips and tricks from previous CFL experiances?
My second question- I intend to use this as a QT/Hospital tank in addition to a high(ish) light planted tank. While I shouldn't actually need much biological filtration- The heavily planted tank should take care of much of that- I do plan to keep some MTS and shrimp in the tank full time. The shrimp may well become a breeding population with excess being transferred to the main tank as live food, and also provide some ammonia to keep whatever bacteria I may desire alive.
But, anyway, the point is that I beleive that most parasites/etc that affect fish will not affect the invertrabrates I plan on keeping in this tank- Specifically, that most common one, Ich. Am I correct, or am I misremembering something?
Oh, and since this is my first real post, although I've lurked quite a while, hello everyone.