The Ever Loving Lighting Problem

[SHortyGeorge]

Hi! early last week I purchased some Sunset Hygrophila, and put them in my tank.... while my java ferns, java moss, etc. seem to do ok, these guys started wilting a fair bit. I had a bulb that was in the hood when my friend gave me the tank... it turns out it was a 15watt pur-lite spiral energy saver bulb, but it was immensely bright. I now have two incandescent 25watt bulbs that put off an amberish glow... but in my ten gallonw, that should work out to 5 wpg shouldn't it? or would it be 2.5 all the way around considering that each one more or less monitors each side of the tank? I'm hoping this will help, I realize of course that incandescent isn't the best light for plants, but I have to save up for a flourescent **shudders** I'm broke :?
Does anyone have any recommendations for what I can do? for some reason, the algae has no problem growing in my tank, could it have been because the lighting wasn't quite enough for the plants? Is this set up any better? Is there anything I can do to promote healthy plant growth while I save for a flourescent hood, using some fertilizer, or something?

 

[madasafish]

OK. Putting aside the other info. Sunset hygros are more sensitive than other hygros for one reason or another. I've found mine to be recovering poorly from a period of low-light in my large planted tank...

 

[Guest]

Shorty,

I hate to tell you this but when we talk watts we are actually talking fluorescent watts. Your incandescent bulbs might at most put out 3-4 watts of usable light energy for your plants.

 

[tsaraber]

I was able to find screw in fluorescent lights for my 2.5 gallon - maybe this is an option for your 10 gallon as well?

You also need to keep an eye on the tank temperature - incandescents give off a LOT of heat.

 

[Fruitbat]

The screw-in fluorescent lights are definitely a potential solution here. You can replace the incandescent bulbs with two of those (10 watts) and that should improve things.

 

[SHortyGeorge]

Hmmm. screw in flourescents? now that is something I haven't heard of

I figured the incandescents were pretty useless, but u don't argue with a free tank outfit!

They are such lovely plants.... definately going to look into the flourescents.

Now, I just found an 60-watt Plant Gro bulb that my brother had for some reason or another that he wasn't using... do you think shining this onto the tank might help the hygrophila until I find some flourescents? I know it does give off some UV spectrum :?

 

[Guest]

Is this bulb fluorescent or incandescent? If it's not fluorescent it's not going to help much at all.

Take a minute and read the sticky post at the top of this forum and then take another minute or two and read my FAQ that is linked in my sig.

In general "magic" plant bulbs are not going to help make up for the lack of watts.

 

[ishmael]

Is this bulb fluorescent or incandescent? If it's not fluorescent it's not going to help much at all.

so the 15 watt incandescent bulbs i have that say they will improve plant growth won't actually do that?

 

[Guest]

Correct. Remember that the conversion factor if I can remember correctly is the incandescent wattage divided by 4 to get actual watts. So your bulbs are actually 4 watt bulbs.

 

[ishmael]

ok, then that's no good.
what the heck are those lights for then?

 

[SHortyGeorge]

I was able to find screw in fluorescent lights for my 2.5 gallon - maybe this is an option for your 10 gallon as well?

You also need to keep an eye on the tank temperature - incandescents give off a LOT of heat.

definately looking into those screw-ins... my tank temp stays at a pretty steady 78 degrees... the only time it goes up is when it hits 84-86 outside temp.. I'm on the 4th floor of an apartment building with a SouthEast facing window.. this room gets HOTT... but even then, temp doesn't go above 80 degrees thankfully

 

[Guest]

ok, then that's no good.
what the heck are those lights for then?

To remove money from the pockets of suckers.

 

[ishmael]

ok, then that's no good.
what the heck are those lights for then?

To remove money from the pockets of suckers.

oh.
worked great then.

 

[mixman]

lighting

well i have a bunch of the Sunset Hygrophila and you need lots of lighting for it to grow correctly. it grows like a weed in my tank. i have a 37 gal
woth 130 watts of compact lighting and it grows great. deffently get some new lighting and it will look great very shortly.