Flourescent Lightbulbs

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KPhilly

Aquarium Advice FINatic
Joined
Jun 19, 2013
Messages
848
Location
Alabama
Are there any fluorescent Lightbulbs that will feed my live plants?
 
All fluorescent bulbs will work for growing plants. It just depends on how high of a light level you are looking for. What size tank do you have and what types of plants do you want to grow? Those two bits of information will determine what size of light you will need.
 
For a 100g tank you might be able to do a 4 bulb t5ho fixture to give you high light plants but it's not guaranteed. I might go with 5 or 6 just to be sure for high light plants. For medium light plants then a 4 bulb t5ho fixture should be perfectly fine.

At that point it might be a good idea to look into a LED fixture which will have a higher cost in the beginning but will have lower energy consumption and you won't have to replace the bulbs for a looong time. That being said, I can't really point you in the correct direction towards which LED fixtures to use.
 
Depends how heavily you want to plant it and what plants. I would recommend T5 HO to get mid light level plants. It'll give you more options in the long run. A good substrate fertilizer is your best bet. The liquid fetz are expensive and require a lot for a 100g the liquid fertz have to be added often whereas the substrate sits under the gravel or is mixed in.

You should plan out how heavily planted, what plants, and fish yes/no
The more you decide/know the better your options!
 
I'm not sure if this means anything but my tank isn't long as most. It's more higher.
 
The height affects how much light you need more than anything.
If you measure the tank it would help. The standard 100G tank is 20" tall
What is yours? The taller the tank the more water the light has to travel through and is lost, so you need more for taller tanks.
 
It's 27" tall, but it's custom built. The only lights that will fit the socket are fluorescent. I need some help on how to figure out how to grow these plants. I don't have a lot of money right now to spend on a bunch of Co2 stuff which I don't even know much about. I have play sand, by the way. I've heard of people who have had success growing plants in this sand too.
 
Sand is alright. I've heard of play sand causing trouble for burrowing critters but it's rare. Most recommend it. Can you replace the fixtures? I understand you're on a budget but the older T8 would never be able to light a 27" deep 100G
As far as I've ever read you would need to upgrade to the T5 HO or LED. LED are VERY expensive and a good T5 HO would be $80-$130 depending on size. Avoid Coralife thought the High Output have a lot of issues!
 
Play sand is just fine to use as a substrate. If you are planning on growing plants in it I would suggest acquiring a population of Malaysian trumpet snails since the play sand tends to compact fairly solidly making it harder for plant roots to take hold.

You only need a carbon source if you want medium - high light plants. A Low light planted tank doesn't need any carbon injected into it. You could also use something like Flourish Excel as a carbon source to substitute for a pressurized CO2 system.

What size of fluorescent lights will fit in your light fixture? Also, how many are there?
 
Flourish excel is fairly hard to OD enough to harm fish so you wouldn't have to worry about it.
 
Well depending on how well planted your tank is along with light level it calls for 1ml/10g daily.
 
Okay, so say I want to get a pressurized CO2 system. What all would need, how does it hook up, and how often do I need to make refills?
 
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