SWEEEEEET news for my 20 gallon planted!

[severum mama]

Well, I went to the LFS today to look at light strips, kinda planning on getting a twin bulb flourescent strip. I was looking to upgrade (finally) my 20 gallon planted tank because some of the plants aren't doing so well, and I knew I needed to upgrade to have a better looking planted tank. They didn't have any twin bulb strips to fit my tank, so instead I got the Current USA Satellite 65 watt PC strip with an lcd lunar light! I'm so excited, it's super bright in that tank now, and the lunar light will be so cool to see tonight. In a couple days I'm going to add the Hagen CO2 system that I bought a while back, and see what happens.

 

[FishLover14]

Cool stuff! Sounds like you got some really nice lights!

 

[Blucat]

PLease post about the CO2 system, i am wondering if i should buy it for my 24g.
Yes your lighting sounds awesome! Piccys please...

 

[Fishyfanatic]

I LOVE LCD lights. You will absolutely love to watch the fish at night. We have one small one that simulates the moon. It's not too big and only shines in one spot in the tank, BUT, it looks like moonlight. Congrats Severum!

 

[severum mama]

I'm hoping to catch a glimpse of my gold nugget sometime with the moon light, but I haven't seen him out yet.

As far as the CO2 system, I haven't hooked it up yet so I can't really tell you anything about it. I think it's for tanks up to 20 gallons or something. I'll let you know what happens with it, my plants are looking pretty shabby right now so maybe it will help them. I don't have any of my own pics of the new light, but here is a link to the same one I got:
http://www.bigalsonline.com/catalog/product.xml?product_id=29597;category_id=1875;pcid1=1843;pcid2=

 

[greenmaji]

have you swaped out the bulbs? it seems there half artic blue.. half the light will not be usable for your plants.. 8O

 

[oscarbreeder]

severum,

You will just love the lunar lighting. I have it on my 180gal oscar tanks and it is the coolest looking thing ever. The Hagen co2 system works great. I used it on my 55 gallon community tank before I swaped it out to an African Cichlid tank.

Good luck with it.

 

[severum mama]

There's no way I'm swapping out the bulb, I just spent way too much $ on the strip itself. Even if half the the bulb is in the actinic spectrum, the half that will be usable to my plants is still much more light than what I had before.

The lunar light looked so cool last night! Didn't see my gold nugget though.

 

[greenmaji]

im guessing if all the light was usable your need for presurized CO2 would go up.. it might be a good idea to keep the bulb thats in it.. thats alot of wpg.. 3.25.. but plants that demand high light will probibly need a little more light than 1.6wpg.. The idea of using lunar light is great.. I could only imagine.. unless you have pics..

 

[Big C]

Congrats severum!!! Let me know if it does the trick with the golden nugget. If it works I'll try it.
Need- to-see -"the-cutie"

 

[severum mama]

Believe me, 1.6 wpg is still a huge improvement over what I had. I'm going to go ahead and add that CO2 system I have in a day or 2, and I'm sure my tank will look a lot better. I doubt if I have any high light plants anyway, otherwise they would have died by now with that old light strip I had. I'll post a pic later when it gets dark and I can get a better shot of the tank. What part of Central KY are you from? I used to live there.

 

[severum mama]

Here's a pic of the tank that I took a few minutes ago. I wonder if it would look brighter if the light wasn't so blue. :?

 

[Fishyfanatic]

Looks Great Severum!

 

[greenmaji]

it looks good.. and the blue light is not as bright as the lights that would be appropriate for plants but it looks good to me...

 

[travis simonson]

That's a nice looking tank I've got the same kind of Orbit lights and love the lunar lighting. It's great being able to watch the tank 24 hours a day isn't it?

You are missing out on a lot of the power for growing plants by keeping the 50/50 10000K/Actinic03 bulb that ships with it. If it works for your current plants then you're set. Just remember that if you ever want to try growing some of the really high light plants you'll probably have to switch them out in favor of something that doesn't feature paritial actinic spectrum lighting. Although the blue of actinics does look pretty cool

 

[severum mama]

Oh, I know, I plan to replace it eventually but it will have to wait until another paycheck. With 2 dogs it's really not a priority right now. Would you recommend just a 10000 K bulb (I mean one that is all 10000 K and doesn't have the actinic)?
I'm new to this since before I got this light I just had one that I got with the tank (I got the whole setup for free 8) ). You can't tell from the pic, but the sword plant, whatever it is, is looking pretty shabby. The leaves are all thin and I'm sure it's from lack of lighting and proper nutrients, the strip I replaced was less than 1 wpg so I can't believe the plants even survived.

 

[travis simonson]

If you like the way the 10000K light you've got looks then go with a 100% 10000K bulb. A lot of people like the look of 6700K too, it's a bit yellow for my taste (where 10000K is fairly white). A good mix is a 50/50 6700K/10000K bulb. Anything from 5000-10000K color temp will grow plants well. It's really a matter of what you like to look at.

 

[severum mama]

LOL I can't really tell what the 10000K looks like since it also has the actinic part. I will probably go with the 10000K eventually since I don't really like the yellow look that well. Thanks for the advice, and just wanted you to know I appreciate the compliment coming from you since your tank is so amazing. BTW I just got done putting the CO2 system in the tank, I'll keep you posted on what happens. Should I be watching for changes in pH? The system is nothing too special, just the Nutrafin (Hagen) CO2 for small tanks.

 

[travis simonson]

Good point, I would always monitor your pH and when supplementing with CO2. Chances are you won't have to worry about overdoing with something like the Nutrafin unit, but without knowing your pH and KH there is really no way to tell exactly what your CO2 levels are.

And thanks for the compliment

 

[severum mama]

Well, I haven't tested pH in a while but it always holds steady in all my tanks at 7.0- lucky me! Then again, I've never used CO2 before and I don't know my KH so I guess I will have to keep an eye on it for a while.