10g lighting options

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

mike011689

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Jan 26, 2010
Messages
10
Hi everyone

I'm looking to start a 10g planted tank. I'm more of a saltwater person so this stuff is kinda newer to me. I've got a 20" current PC fixture that is 2x40w pc. What all would i be able to grow with that? And as for the bulbs, i've got a 10K daylight and an actinic bulb in there now. I know actinics aren't really used for planted tanks, but will the 10K be a decent bulb or do i need to lower it to like a 6500K? Like i said, i'm more used to reef setups.

thanks everyone!
 
Welcome to AA :) In a 10g tank, 40w is going to be alot of light. Id say to leave the actinic and 10,000k bulb in, and just have 40w of usable light for the plants. You'll probably want to go with co2 since you have such high light. You could always try without co2, and then if you start having an algae problem, add it in. Breaking up the photo period with something like 4 hours on, 4 hours off, 4 hours on would probably help alot with that.
 
That is the same fixture that I have. If you decide to go for a high light setup, all you would need to do as far as the lighting goes is to swap out the actinic for a a 50/50 and you would be able to grow pretty much anything you wanted. You would definately need to have CO2 and keep up with the fertilization though.
 
why would i need to use co2 if i have high light? what exactly does the co2 do?

Another question...I remember way back when i had freshwater tanks (like...8 years ago lol) i had a chinese algae eater that did a dang good job on the algae on the glass and stuff. Are they safe with plants or no? If not, what type of fish would be safe with plants but still eat the algae?

And on a similar note...what fish are NOT good with plants? Obviously african cichlids, but other than those, are there any i need to worry about?
 
carbon is the next biggest thing the plants use after light. with a extra amount of carbon you can boost plant growth by up to 10 times. the extra growth use more of the ferts in the water which helps keep algae at bay.

CAE get to large for a 10 gallon tank. they are also known to get aggressive as they get older. the bets bet with algae is to keep the tank in balance so you dont have algae. there is no one algae eater that will also eat all the different kinds of algae out there. nerite snails help with the green spot algae on the glass and other algaes. amano shrimp help with hair algae. there is otos that help with brown algae.
 
Back
Top Bottom