What light works

[cobb12]

I have a 10g. FO tank and i would like to add plants.​

My light fixture is a (Perfect a Lite Full aquarium hood with an eclipse fluorescent lamp) iheard that those light strips dont work well with live plants. That onlly the 2 bulb hood works the best. I just bought it 2 days ago from petsmart and i can still return it and get the other kind.

For the plants i would like to some amazon swords and some plants to help feed any fry since i am tryin to breed my bettas. I do not want it to dense though jusst mebbe like 3-4 plants. I do not have a Co2 canister and am not planning on getting on is that ok


Also for aquarium water test kits do those last forever or do they run out of tests eventually.

Thanks.

 

[SpeedEuphoria]

If you can swap the fluorescent hood(15w) for a dual incandescent bulb hood, do it! I just tore the guts out of my fluorescent hood to mount screw in bulbs, so it will save you time. Dont use the incandescent bulbs for plants, get some compact fluorescent bulbs, preferable "U-shaped" ones, but since they are hard to find spiral/pigtail bulbs would work.

Now you can also get a "good" fixture that has better lights and reflectors and will allow you to grow most anything(with CO2 normally)

CO2 helps on most every planted tank, but really is only needed for medium or higher lighting. Same with ferts.

Swords in general are very large plants, people have them that take up most of a 50gallon tank. Now saying that I just got 2 small ones for my 10g, so we shall see how they do.

Tests kits do expire, normally the nitrate test dies 1st, not sure if thats what you meant., b/c of course the drops run out also.

 

[cobb12]

so as long as i keep a low level of light i dont need co2 right and shouldnt i get 2 ,15 watt bulbs so i can have 3watts per gallon to match the rule of thumb

How big of a difference does changing from a flourescent tube to fluorescent bulbs make. can you only grow plants with bulbs

ANy prefrences on plants that are small and good for fry

 

[SpeedEuphoria]

The fluorescent tubes are better in general because of restrike. The problem is that generally all bulbs of whatever type have a fixed wattage by length. So all 18" T8 bulbs(like the one in the hood) are 15w, no ifs ands or buts. Fluorescent is the only thing to consider, either type works much better than incandescent ever dreamed.

So the only way to get more watts is to mount more bulbs in it, use a longer tube(not helping if its already the size for your tank), or to overdrive it(ODNO).

So the spiral bulbs due to there shape are not as efficient at directing the light into the water(goes all over and bounces back on it self because of the shape).

the WPG rules dont apply to smaller tanks(under 20gallon) because of less surface area among other things. So 2wpg is normally medium for large tanks, well for a 10g tank 30w or 40w is basically like 2wpg on a large tank. It also depends on the fixture, like now I'm running 2x 20w spiral bulbs on my 10G, its prob ~medium light, but if you buy a new good fixture that is 30w it would prob be about the same because my 40w is not very efficient due to the bulbs and reflectors.

Put it this way, the screw in hood is the easiest/cheapest one to upgrade if you want to, with the other hood your stuck unless you DIY.

Now I did have plants growing with a 15w light, but mostly sustaining slow growth.


Moss is easy and great for fry, guppy grass also

 

[cobb12]

thanks speedeuphoria i returned the strip light and got the 2 bulb hood thanks for the info

 

[SpeedEuphoria]

Yeah its just easier and cheaper to buy screw in bulbs, they all fit the same socket and go from heck 7w to 200w, so you can change your WPG easy. I'd say you can get medium lighting +/-, very easy/cheap with this. Like me I had the 15w tube(it will grow low light plants fine IMO) and then wanted a little more, well if I had an Incandescent hood I could just buy new bulbs, instead I had to do work and spend money.

If you know you want high lighting, plan to use CO2 and ferts then it would be good to get a better fixture from the beginning.

 

[new2betas]

For the plants i would like to some amazon swords and some plants to help feed any fry since i am tryin to breed my bettas. Thanks.

Way off topic here....but have you done LOTS of research on what it takes to breed bettas and then tend to the fry? I was thinking about this also as I have two female bettas and three males. But, then after reading quite a bit online about this and seeing what a responsibility it is to really do it correctly, I decided it wasn't for me. I would suggest really reading a lot about it before deciding. Keeping 300-500 baby male bettas separated would be an undertaking in itself.....just my honest opinion.