Help a Beginner with Lighting?

[Mr Fisher]

Beautiful, thank you! You've helped me (and my tank) so much!

Anytime, sharing knowledge and helping others is what it's all about! You should make a thread on the plans for your tank and it's progress. I'm sure others and myself would enjoy it.

 

[captaincritical]

Anytime, sharing knowledge and helping others is what it's all about! You should make a thread on the plans for your tank and it's progress. I'm sure others and myself would enjoy it.

I do have a sort of timeline running here, but I'll definitely start a new one in the Planted Tanks section once I get into adding more plants.

 

[Wrongwill]

So I'm fairly new but

This thread seems to be worth reading. Stick to your lighting for now and get some live plants going. Get some experience with them and eventually upgrade if you wanna keep more plants/ plants with higher light demands. Of course doing that would mean having a fertilizer substrate and co2 and regular dozing of more chemicals.
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f24/the-most-common-mistake-beginners-make-is-51395.html

The hood that came with my tank kit has worked for my plants for aboutamonth.

Rose sword
hornwort
amazon sword
javafern

All the plants are doing very well. to the point were weekly trimmings are needed for some of them.
I have just coloured gravel and the fish/filter/pond snails have provided enough of everything for the plants. I will likely use exel or flourish as well *** add some laterite as I need it.

 

[Brookster123]

If you stick with the t8 fixture than what you have for a bulb is as good as it gets.. You could upgrade to a t5 no which would fit into the hood you have now (what I replaced my t8 with) this would allow you grow some low/med light plants. Or you could go all out with a sweet new led and not have to worry about changing bulbs for years.. Look at current sat+, has a bunch of cool settings..

 

[captaincritical]

I picked up a 5500k bulb from the LFS today (just a store brand to see if it made any difference at all) and it does look much brighter! It will do for now.

Thanks, all!

 

[Coursair]

Yeah, the bulb in it now is likely a T8. IF you look on the bulb itself there should be some information.



I'd just try a different bulb opposed to spending oddles on a new set up if your budget is tight.



HEre's a chart on bulb applicaion



Aquarium Lighting: Fluorescent Bulb Selection Guide



I'd pick up either a 5000 or 5500K bulb. Petco is liquidating their florescent stu now I believe or you could find something on Amazon.



The one I tried and hated was the Zoo med 6500k Ultra sun. It straight up is blue! Terrible waste of 16 bucks

That's so weird ! I use Zoo Med 6,500K Ultra Sun CFLs and they are perfect for my plants. I wonder if they switched bulbs and you got 10,000K mislabeled as 6,500K ???




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[Mr Fisher]

I picked up a 5500k bulb from the LFS today (just a store brand to see if it made any difference at all) and it does look much brighter! It will do for now.

Thanks, all!

That's so weird ! I use Zoo Med 6,500K Ultra Sun CFLs and they are perfect for my plants. I wonder if they switched bulbs and you got 10,000K mislabeled as 6,500K ???




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It's possible, the package was open.