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I have regular sand and no ferts or special substrate. It's a stock hood for a 29g tank that I put on this one.

Everyone has said its easy to grow with almost no light so I dont' know what I;m doing wrong....I just cant grow anything :-(
 
A 17 watt won't supply the required light. AH Supply makes modification kits. What you need is a 55 watt, 5600 K light kit. If you are a little handy at stuff you can make the mod. Try going to their site and looking at the kits. Call them, the guy will help you.
 
Moss requires little little light, but still need ferts.
Aqueon makes a reasonably priced dual bulb t5 fixture.
24" is around $60 lt time I saw, and it comes with bulbs, that would be around 60 watts
 
Aww man.... I was told I had enough light for these basic plants, I asked a few times. I had flourite in my 10g and the plants died in there too but I didnt have enough light for the anacharis I know now.

Soooo, a dual T5 huh? I thought I was done buying lighting...grrrr...

How would a marineland LED fixture do with low light plants? Either the double bright or reef ready, would that be enough?
 
Oh, and it's a 20L so its a 30" fixture. So if the LEDs arent enough I might look into the fish needit ones.

i really really didnt' wanna buy another lighting setup so soon...I have 7 tanks up and running and am looking into a new SW build as well....oh well....darn it.....
 
It may be a fert issue, but 17w is REALLY low for plants....
I really don't have a lot of experience with the LEDs, sorry :(
 
For java moss though? I really can't think of why this wouldn't be growing. It literally grows in ambient room lighting in my tanks (not all my tanks are lit right now), same for java fern. There is no reason to go to T5 HO, or even power compacts, to grow java moss.

Do I recall correctly that you are using a 50/50 bulb? It would still shock me that it wouldn't grow java moss, but definitely look into changing the bulb before plopping down the cash on a whole new fixture IMO. You'll want to look for something in the 5000K-10000K range. Based on your experience with SW, it will probably look more yellow than what you are used to, but plants should do better.
 
I can put the original bulb back in if that will help. :)

I just so love the blueish hue though, but if I want tog row something I guess i can deal with it.

This tank is actually between a 6 foot sliding door and a 4 foot window so it does get alot of ambient light as well.

Thanks SM, I appreciate it.

I will see if I can keep these guys alive. Lemme go find that bulb now lol
 
severum mama said:
For java moss though? I really can't think of why this wouldn't be growing. It literally grows in ambient room lighting in my tanks (not all my tanks are lit right now), same for java fern. There is no reason to go to T5 HO, or even power compacts, to grow java moss.

Do I recall correctly that you are using a 50/50 bulb? It would still shock me that it wouldn't grow java moss, but definitely look into changing the bulb before plopping down the cash on a whole new fixture IMO. You'll want to look for something in the 5000K-10000K range. Based on your experience with SW, it will probably look more yellow than what you are used to, but plants should do better.

Exactly, mine is going crazy in my hospital tank, with NO light at all...
I DO have to dose ferts though...
 
Didn't I send you some pennywort as well? You might have better luck with that one floating- I can never get it to grow if I plant it in the substrate but it goes nuts when I let it float.
 
Ah penny wor, that was the other one! It's floating now but keeps getting into the filter intake. I need to rescape today I guess. Put everything back where it belongs. lol

Can I use a rubber band to hold the moss to the wood? Is that safe to put in the tank?
 
S'what I use with mine. Others seem to use cotton thread, by the time it dissolves, the moss should be attached.
 
You may also be experiencing some die-back from the plant acclimating to your tank.

Most aquarium plants will experience some "negative growth" in a new environment before they begin growing normally again. I would stick with what you have for now - and give it a few weeks before you go spending a ton on lighting.

(I have a 6gal PetCo tank with the default bulb and it took about 3 weeks before the Java Moss started exploding. Mosses tend to grow exponentially - so the bigger the clump the faster it usually grows)

And just remember - this is a freshwater planted tank - so a little bit of Nitrates is actually a good thing.
 
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