Some problems with my tank

[galen]

hey- first, please click on the my info button on the bottom of this messgae and it should give you what i have right now for my aquarium.

now the light is incandescent- i have 2 screw-in Coralife 10 W bulbs (http://www.bigalsonline.com/BigAlsU...379051/cl0/coralifeminicompactcolormaxlamp10w) that I bought from Big Als thinking they were, as it looks from the link, being white color. they are not; instead, they are a pinkish tint to them. is this sort of lighting bad for my plants? if so, what sort of lighting is decent for my amazon and rangeri swords?

second, the sand substrate i have now i want to replace. what would be recommended? i am leaning towards fluorite, but i kinda wonder if its necessary since i add, via Planttabbs and some liquid supplements, many of the nutrients the plants already require.

third, i have no co2 injection going on whatsoever. i try to keep the water level high above the filter outlet so that surface agitation is minimal. whats do u guys recommend?

thanks for taking the time to answer on this lengthy post!

 

[JDogg]

1. 2 10 watt bulbs over a 10 gallon is not enough light IMO

2. what is the Kelvin temp of the bulbs, if it is between 65000 and 10,000 that it is fine for plants

3. the swords will outgrow a 10 gallon, mine have out grown my 75 gallon :?

4. if no co2 you should maximise suffice agitation to max dissolved CO2 from air.

5. sand can form anaerobic spots that will produce poison gas, so keep it mixed up.

6. your fish are all to big for that tank

 

[galen]

ok. il reply to your points using the same way so theres no confusion.
2. the kelvin is around 540-667 nm.
3. the swords i agree on- but i grow them out and divide them, then sell them on ebay for money.
4. ok, ill lower the water level. but i thought it was the other way around- keeping the water level high and agitation minimal keeps the co2 in the the tank.
5. the sand is a problem that i will change out soon.
6. yes, but i bought them after asking the lfs guys if they would be ok in my tank and they said yes. plus, they had the cat mislabeled as a hoplite catfish instead of hoplo and the festivum cichlid as a snakeskin gourami! so i was mislead when buying them and am now looking on ebay and craigslist to upgrade to a 20 or 40 long.

 

[Purrbox]

According to this site the Coralife ColorMax is actually 6700K, which should be perfectly fine for your plants even though the color's a bit odd.

Aggitating the water's surface will help to return the CO2 to ambient levels. In a tank where CO2 is being injected that means that surface agitation gasses off the extra CO2 reducing the CO2 levels. In a tank like yours, where CO2 isn't being injected the surface agitation helps to increase CO2 levels back to ambient levels making up for the CO2 used by the plants. This is why in your situation it is good to increase aggitation. If at sometime in the future you decide to inject CO2, then you would want to reduce the surface agitation again.

There are lots of options for your substrate, of which Flourite is a good but exceedingly dusty option. I'd recommend checking out the substrate link in the Read This First Sticky for more information on your various options.