Lighting for a 10 gal.

[scalesojustice]

I'm planning on turning one of my boring 10 gal tanks into a beautiful planted tank. after reading many of the stickies and looking into options, it seems that it's hard to find suitable lighting in the standard 20" size.

I was thinking of getting an incandescent and screwing in 2 10 watt Compact fluorescent. that would give me 2 wpg of compact fluorescent lighting, right?

i would like at least 2 wpg because, while i'll start slow with low light plants, i would like some room to grow (pardon the pun).

anyone have a recommendations for lighting on a 10 gal?

(of course, i plan on CO2, probably d.i.y., and some ferts, but i haven't gotten that far yet. one step at a time. and this is all just planning, i'm not actually setting it up yet)

Thanks!

 

[EdgarMedina1010]

I'm planning on turning one of my boring 10 gal tanks into a beautiful planted tank. after reading many of the stickies and looking into options, it seems that it's hard to find suitable lighting in the standard 20" size.

I was thinking of getting an incandescent and screwing in 2 10 watt Compact fluorescent. that would give me 2 wpg of compact fluorescent lighting, right?

i would like at least 2 wpg because, while i'll start slow with low light plants, i would like some room to grow (pardon the pun).

anyone have a recommendations for lighting on a 10 gal?

(of course, i plan on CO2, probably d.i.y., and some ferts, but i haven't gotten that far yet. one step at a time. and this is all just planning, i'm not actually setting it up yet)

Thanks!

Sounds good, I actually have 2 10W CF bulbs, in a incandescent lighting hood, and ive been able to grow, Java Moss, Wisteria, Anacharis...im just throwing these at the top of my head, but I got way more than that...Looks like a pretty good plan...Good luck

 

[Nell]

On my 10 gal, I have replaced the bulbs in the incandescent hood with spiral CF- I believe they are somewhere around 15 watts each but I can't say for sure. I had to remove the plastic bulb covers and metal reflectors to get them to fit, and I painted the underside of the hood white.
At the moment, I am not adding ferts or CO2, and I am getting okay growth and only a little algae. The plants I have are mostly java fern, anubias, Val, and rotala indica.
This setup is working better than when I was using 2 of the regular florescent tubes.

 

[PITT]

I have a 10 that is doing pretty good once I found the strait tube CF bulbs. I hate to say this...I bought it all at Walmart*. I got a hood that is made for two incondesants. I bought at the same time two 10W CF strait tube bulbs from the "fish dept". These bulbs seem to be doing great. I tried a few other options w/ different desk lamps and screw shape CF bulbs but didn't seem to get anything good until the new set up.

*i'm not anti-walmart in general...just why do they carry fish if they are not going to even try and take care of them?

 

[majolo]

I'm definitely not the most experienced in this, but I have read here that the "watts per gallon" measure breaks down badly for small tanks; in fact I think I remember reading that 20W on 10 gallons is more like low light. Here are a couple links available through the stickies that talk about this some:
Rex Griggs Minimum Light Threshold
Lighting in Amano tanks

 

[An t-iasg]

Majolo is correct - the WPG rule doesn't apply to well to tanks under 20 gallons. I have 28 watts of compact fluorescent lighting over my 10 gallon and I think I'm just within the medium light threshold. With CO2, though, I have been able to grow a wide variety of plants under this light.

Here's my light fixture:

http://www.hellolights.com/201xcoraqpch.html

Be sure to scroll down and read the "Additional Bulbs" paragraph to select the 6700K bulb.

 

[scalesojustice]

I'm definitely not the most experienced in this, but I have read here that the "watts per gallon" measure breaks down badly for small tanks; in fact I think I remember reading that 20W on 10 gallons is more like low light. Here are a couple links available through the stickies that talk about this some:
Rex Griggs Minimum Light Threshold
Lighting in Amano tanks

that is a very interesting take and one i'm more inclined to believe, but it leaves me with two questions. give that the screw-ins would be PC's, Malkore wrote in a sticky that:

To keep the example simple, a NO bulb of 18watts might put out 1000 lumens. 18*3=54, so 3 of these bulbs would put out 3,000 lumens. A 55watt PC bulb puts out 4,800 lumens. So PC's take up less space per watt, with a higher output. (PC lumen output source: http://www.atlantalightbulbs.com/ecart/10browse.asp?search=F55BX/AR/FS )

so, while i would agree that 20 watts per gal on a 10 gal is low light, would this mean that 20 watts of pc equals more like 2.5 wpg? allowing more flexibility in the moderate light requirements.

EDIT: i've seen those coralife fixtures, but i read somewhere that 50/50 light is no good. is that really true?

Continuing edit: i see what you mean about the pull down menu now. pretty cool.

 

[physicsdude]

yea juice. i am looking to upgrade the lighting on my 10 gallon tank, but am wondering whether the CF bulbs offerred by Big Als are any good?

http://www.bigalsonline.com/BigAlsU...379051/cl0/coralifeminicompactcolormaxlamp10w

ive seen these in a lfs for the same price, after shipping as at big als. but the bulbs were tinted with a rosy red color. would that hint of pink affect in way the growth of the plants? thanks!

 

[JDogg]

one one of my (2) planted 10 gallons i have screw in compact florecent bulb. i run two 20 watt (U-Shaped) bulbs. i would equate this to a medium light tank. i dose EI and Excel on this tank.

if you go with the spiral shaped bulb i would go with the 25 watt bulbs to account for the light lost from the spiral. i do not see a K ratting for those big al bulbs so i do not know if they would be good for plants or not, but i do know that they are alot more $$ then the same thing at wal-mart :?

 

[scalesojustice]

Here's my light fixture:
http://www.hellolights.com/201xcoraqpch.html
Be sure to scroll down and read the "Additional Bulbs" paragraph to select the 6700K bulb.

I like the look of this lighting method.

given that the unit is 5-in. wide. if you put two of those on a 10 gal, you would have 56 watts, which would put you into the moderate light category, right? 56 watts on a 10 gal would be awesome, and hilarious.

EDIT:
if anyone is interested, i found a coralife 20 in. 1x 96w on amazon. i think i'm going to stick to the 28w to get my bearings.

 

[Purrbox]

I'm currently running a Current Satellite 2x40 watt fixture on my 10 gallon. One dual daylight and one 50/50 bulb, for a total of 60 watts usable light. This puts my tank somewhere from high to very high light based on the plant growth that I'm getting.

While the screw in compact flourescents do provide a nice inexpensive solution to lighting a 10 gallon, you have to take into account that they loose a fair amount of light due to restrike and being self ballasted. I generally consider that this counteracts any gain from them being compact fluorescents instead of T12 fluorescents. Based on other people's reports of their experience I believe that the 40watts with the screw in compact flourescents is generally considered medium low to medium light.

 

[JDogg]

i get better growth with 2 15 watt t-8s over my 10 gallon apisto tank then i do with two 20 watt u-shaped screw ins CF on my DP tank.

 

[Burks]

Not only does the WPG rule not work well with smaller tanks, the user of said rule must take into account the reflector and bulbs being used. Those screw in CF bulbs may equal 20w, but you aren't getting that into the tank.

That's why people praise the AH Supply reflector, the thing gets a LOT of light TO the tank.

I personally use an AH Supply 36w kit over my 10g and love it. Grows just about anything and does so quickly. I'm pulling out handfuls of Guppy Grass weekly. Moss grows extremely well.

 

[scalesojustice]

Thanks for all your suggestions. i ended up with the http://www.hellolights.com/201xcoraqpch.html Coralife. it wasn't too pricey and it's a nice "introduction" light. i plan to switch my tack 10 gal. into a planted paradise, so i'll be sure to hang around as i'm a total plant noob and i will certainly get pwned. Thanks again!

 

[An t-iasg]

You're welcome! I'm sure you'll like it. Did you get the legs accessory too? Those legs are a pain to put on but they do give a nice appearance to the tank overall and it's much easier to handle the light this way. My glass top has some slight watermarks on it but none of that heavy white build-up since the light doesn't sit directly on it.

 

[scalesojustice]

i did get the leg mounts. and i'll be putting a glass canopy on as soon as the snail eggs fall off of the top of my current plastic canopy.

the moonlight was tempting... but a bit overkill for a 10 gal.

 

[An t-iasg]

Yes, I thought a bit about the moonlight too. I didn't get it either. I thought that at most it would be on for a half hour or so before I turned it off and went to bed. Not really worth it for a planted tank, IMO, although I'm sure it would give a nice effect.

 

[scalesojustice]

i have moonlights on my 40 gal. and i love them. but they would definately be overkill on a 10 gal. especially for my tank being on the bottom rung of a dual 10-gal. stand.