lights for planted tank - help please!

[laur94x]

I posted before about possibly changing from fake to real plants in my 36 gallon but didn't know what light I had or anything about plants. I've just looked and I have 2 of these bulbs -
Glo - power glow
24''
20W. T8

And if it makes a difference they have phillips s2 starters - 4-22w

Can someone please explain to me what all of this means as I haven't a clue lol. Can I grow any plants in here? If yes please give examples. I have sand in my tank too, can you plant sand? I don't want to change cos I just changed for my cories. Thanks! Laura

 

[fort384]

You have 40 watts total of T8 lighting. The Power-glo refers to the color temperature of the bulb. Hagen Power Glos are 18,000 degrees K (18,000K) which is really not suitable for growing plants in a FW environment. They are more suited for marine tanks.

The T size of the bulb is the diameter of the bulb, in 1/8" increments. So a T8 is 8/8ths of an inch or 1 inch in diamter. A t5 is 5/8", T12 12/8" or 1 and a half inches in diameter.

What really matters here is the wattage, and t size of the bulb - that will help determine whether you have high light, medium light, low light, etc. In this case, you have 40 watts of T8 lighting on a 36 gallon tank, which would place you in the low light category. However, to have success with even low light plants, I would recommend looking for T8 bulbs with a color temperature of 6500-10000K. If you are interested in upping the amount of light, which will expand the types of plants you can grow, unfortunately you would need to look into upgrading your fixture, perhaps to a dual t5ho (HO is high output) fixture. That would up your lights to 48W of T5HO light, which on a 36 gallon tank would be medium light, and allow for a large assortment of plants without getting too complicated with CO2 injection and fertilizer supplementation.

 

[laur94x]

Thank you for your reply. I bought a few plants before seeing this post, just like anubias and other low light plants after speaking to the man at my LFS - I know I shouldn't believe anything they say but thought plants would be okay. Am I going to have a chance of these surviving? Or is my lighting too rubbish for even these. If not could you suggest me some specific lights which would be good to buy please? As cheap as possibly to grow low maintenance plants (well as easy as possible really) but lots of choice of plants would be nice too if possible. Thanks, laura

 

[fort384]

Laura, I think you could grow low light plants, if you swap the bulb, without replacing the fixture.

If you wanted to upgrade the fixture, something like this would do well for medium light and low light plants:
30in 2Bulbs fixtures

If you want to keep your current fixture and just grow low light plants, you will want to replace the bulbs with something in the 6500K to 10000K range.

 

[BillD]

I would actually recommend tubes in the 5000K to 6500K range. The 6500K is already trending to blue, and in my personal experience, I get better growth with 5000K tubes over the 6500K and they look better, colour wise. 10000K is way too blue. Plants require a couple of specific bandwidths of red and blue light and the colour temp of the tube doesn't necessarily tell you whether those tubes are rich in those two areas. In my opinion, if the tube has a high CRI, Colour Rendition Index, it is more likely to have the right wavelengths, and the CRI is usually on the package or on the tube. Inexpensive tubes of the right colour temps in T8 are available at places like Home Depot and hardware stores. While higher intensity lights are out there at higher cost, T8s will grow a large variety of plants without special fertilization or CO2 addition. You don't need high cost, high tech lighting to successfully grow a wide range of plants. For what it is worth, I have grown and propagated a large enough assortment of plants to make Master horticulturist in our club's plant program, mostly with T12 lights.

 

[fort384]

I agree with all except 10000k being too blue. There are still enough peaks in red with most 10000k bulbs and I have grown many many nice tanks with exclusively 10000K lighting.

I prefer the bluer light and perhaps there is some trade off in overall growth. But 6500k looks too yellow for my personal tastes.

 

[laur94x]

Thanks for the reply. God this is so confusing. So what do you recommend BillD? I didn't really want to spend £60 on lights I'm already spending £110 on a new goldfish tank tonight (the lights are for the tropical tank). Thanks x

 

[wildroseofky]

I would suggest this light Lights of America 24" Fluorescent Grow Light Fixture: Decor : Walmart.com It is around $11. I used them to grow tomatoes and cucumber plants and they do great. I mounted one over my 29 gallon and I am growing Ludwigia repens, moneywort, pennywort, dwarf sag., and java fern. It lights up my tank like daylight. All my plants are putting out new growth after only 4 days of being planted. I like the price. Or you could change bulbs. Not sure about how high you could go but worth a try.

 

[laur94x]

Thanks, am I able to get them in england?

 

[wildroseofky]

Does England have a Walmart? The company name is Lights of America so I am not sure. They are 24" fluorescent lights. Any fluorescent light will grow plants. In gardening, we usually just use shop lights with one cool and one warm bulb. It always worked. I found the plant light when I was researching the cheapest and best setup for seed starting. Most plant lights are expensive. Anything labeled for a particular use is. Often times though you can find something not labeled for specific use that works as well and is cheaper. Just look for a light rated at 75 watts or better and you should be good.

 

[laur94x]

No we don't have a walmart