So where do you get adequate lighting?

[TomK2]

I was looking around petsmart today, wondering what it would take to get enough light in a 10 gal tank to plant it. A standard light fixture has a 15 watt flourescnet bulb. Incandescent fixtures have two 25 watt bulbs. Anyone have a recommendation? Has to fit a 10 gal standard tank, and give me the proper light to plant it and have a small school of small fish.
This will be my first try at a planted tank, and I am not willing to try anything larger than a 10 gal right now. Do I just need to look online for a more powerful light and a new glass top?

 

[Guest]

www.ahsupply.com their 36 watt bright kit should do wonders with a 10 gallon tank. that would be 3.6 watts a gallon, which should allow you to grow any plant. A hagen co2 injector would also be recommended. Also flourite or eco complete should be used as a substrate for plants with roots. Check out ahsupply, its a highly reputable place for tank lighting and they are fairly good with thier prices.
HTH
-Stewie

 

[Aquaboy]

Try www.Petmeister.com. They have good Coralife lights for great prices.

 

[TomK2]

Thanks for the links. I would appear that for a 20 inch light, I can go with 26 watts, 36 watts and higher. For my fist attempt, I want to Keep it simple, and don't want co2 injection. Just tank, plants, lights, substrate, water, cheap filtration and a light fish load. How many watts would put me in the "keep it simple" range, but would allow me to keep a good variety of plants? If I can break my plant curse with a 10 gal system, I might move up later.

 

[greenfish]

Check out this one too: http://www.hellolights.com/

 

[Guest]

Tom2k -- i'd suggest the ah supply 2x 13 watt deluxe bright kit. You can retrofit these into your current hood. It would put you at 2.6 watts a gallon, which is good. co2 is not a nessessity at 2.6 wpg but you could always add one later on to help things out if you wanted.
HTH
-Stewie

 

[Guest]

Oh yeah, one more thing I forgot to mention. They come on 2 differnt power plugs, so you could always control the amount of lighting by leaving the one 13 watt bulb on for say 12 hours a day, and maybe turn the other 13 watt bulb on for say 3 or 4 of those 12 hours. So for 3-4 hrs you'd be getting 26 watts while the other 8-9 hours a day you'd be getting 13 watts..
Just a suggestion

 

[TomK2]

Well, reading up on planted tanks is somewhat discouraging. While I understand the chemistry behind dissolved co2 and co2 injection, it seems a bit more than I had wanted. Running accross a pH/KH/co2 chart I see that my water with a pH of 7.6, and a KH of 6, would have very little co2 available for plants. So now I wonder, would this be too difficult? Is it as simple as swapping a light fixture, adding substrate, plants, a little filtration and a few fish?

I might be better with low light plants that dont require too much? ??

 

[gone fishin]

It is pretty much that simple. lol Now go out and do it before I have to find another post you wrote to try and convince you! BTW look at my pics, they were taken like a year ago. It was my first attemt at a planted tank. LOTS of kudos to everyone here, they have answered a lot of my questions, well OK, pretty much all, thanks guys!

 

[TomK2]

I have looked at a lot of tank pics (liked yours btw), and many of the ones I liked didn't list the specs. Only some of the ones I liked were low light, say 1 to 1.5 wpg. Plantgeek.com had an article that basically said to stop worrying about it, choose the java species, and the anubias species with whatever light and substrate you have and enjoy. So, with my 15w bulb in a 10 gal tank, I guess I should just do it like you say. Save the special light and co2 for another day. Which leaves me with just one last question, what filtration should I use on a low light, low tech 10 gal planted tank?

 

[marcus russo]

also if you have a screw in type (old school) fixture they now have pc screw in types that are quite good

 

[dr_girlfriend]

like marcus russo said, getting pc bulbs for a incandescent hood is way cheaper than buying a whole new fixture or a retrofit kit. for low light plant i think that would be more than sufficient. if you wanted to boost the wattage you would get out of that, you could put some kind of reflective material above the bulbs like mylar from hydroponic supply.

 

[TomK2]

Thanks for the advice everyone. I know it will work out when I try it! I sure seems easier to find lighting for a 24 inch tank compared to a 20 inch 10 gal. If my breeding tank and QT stay busy........

 

[frog girl]

Plants suck up the same nutrients that your filter does (except they also take nitrates out of the water) so a cheap HOB should work fine unless you plan on a huge bioload.

I have a 90 gph HOB on my 60 gallon hex (low light 1.3 watts) that is well planted & it does fine. I have put in a DIY CO2 rig but my plants grew well before that. They are just growing a bit faster now & are pearling.

 

[SittingDuck]

On a Side note....I can't seem to find any lights with adequate Wattage outside of the Coralife line...My light can take four 36 inch florescent tubes, but the most I've seen for a 36" light (outside of Coralife) is approx 40 Watts. My light fixture has an option to have all four lights on at once, or only 2 at a time (Fronts or Back) and I think the design behind it was for some black lights to be on at night, and day lights on during the day....Anyways, that's off topic.

So, outside of the Coralife lights (which are pretty expensive) is there another that is more than 40Watts? Also, aren't Coralife lights geared towards a Reef aquarium? Is the spectrum on a light more important than the wattage? Some are rated at 10,000K, others at 8,500K...

 

[malkore]

All 36" fluorescents are going to be about 30 watts. The standad is 10watts per foot of tube length. I've never seen a 40watt 36" normal output fluorescent.

Coralife makes both marine and freshwater light fixtures and bulbs. If you're looking at their Aqualights, make sure it's a Freshwater Aqualight, in a green box. If the box is red, its meant for a marine tank.

 

[kaaikop]

I've got 2 Coralife units for Freshwater (36" long, 2 x 96W each).
Got them from captivereefs.com, good prices, good service.
Don't forget the bulbs also lasts twice as long as standard neon tubes (1 year).

just my 2 cents.

 

[SnyperP]

My AHsupply 2x13 did not come with two switches. Also i feel that 2.6wpg is quite a bit of light and will need co2 in a 10g. It's not enough to grow much of the extremely high light plants (such as cambomba furcata or rotola magenta var narrow) but it is enough grow glosso horizontal provided there is enough co2 and not too many shading plants.

If you're looking to grow low light plants such as the ones you listed the screw -in cf bulbs might be what you're looking for. I tried that when i started as well and did not like the coloration at all. Hopefully you can find some decent bulbs

Another option would be buying a 15w t8 fixture available at most lfs. I imagine the price would be higher than most places come from a lfs though.

Just research what ever you're going to decide to do. Overkill is not a good thing in planted tanks. The more light you have in a tank increases the maintence and also increases the likehood of throwing your tnak off balance (algae infestation).