Substantial lighting?

[Jdh]

Hi all-

I haven't been satisfied with my plant growth in my low-tech 10g, so I wanted to make sure that my lighting was sufficient. I have two 20W 5000k Fluorescent Spiral Bulbs in an Incandescent fixture with no reflector. (There was a metal reflector in the fixture, but it the bulbs wouldn't fit with it in.)

I currently have Cabombas, Anubias Barteri, Anubias Nana, Dwarf Hairgrass, Water Sprite, and Micro Sword Narrow Leaf in the tank. The Cabombas seem to be getting stalky, and the Dwarf Hairgrass doesn't seem to be spreading. I have Searchem Flourite as a fert.

Thanks for any help!
-Josh

 

[mgamer20o0]

well the anubias and micro swords are slow growers. cabombas gets stalky in lower light. as for the hair grass i would trim it down some that promotes it to spreed.

 

[Jdh]

What would be the best step foward if I wanted to upgrade? Are their flourescent tube setups that fit a 10G hood?

Thanks,
-Josh

 

[mgamer20o0]

you can try bulbs that outputs more light. there 23w and 27w bulbs. i would also look for the daylingt bulbs better light out put doenst look so yellow.

 

[Jdh]

Okay, although the current bulbs I have are daylight. Do you think the 5000K temp is too low?

 

[BigJim]

6500K is better.

 

[JohnPaul]

I'm not an expert, but I'll throw out a few ideas for you to at least consider. Perhaps those with more experience can say which one(s) might have any merit.

1. You already have 40W over 10g which is a pretty decent amount of light. (Though it is true that, without a reflector, you are losing a good chunk of that.) By comparison, I have 15W over a 5.5g and I have some of what I think is dwarf chain sword and it spreads all over. And when it's not spreading, the issue isn't light, it's other things. See the next point.
2. Are you sure that it is a light deficiency that is hurting your growth? Do you have any CO2? What are your nitrate levels? My gut tells me that it's something other than light that is limiting your growth, and if you don't have CO2, then that would be my first guess.
3. I would definitely recommend bulbs in the 6500K range, though how much better than a 5000k bulb they would be I really don't know.
4. While they are hard to find in a small enough size to fit a 10g tank (18" length), there are T5 fixtures you can buy. I just did a quick search and came across this one, for example. Now in that particular one, you'll notice one of the two bulbs is an actinic (worthless for plant growth) so you'd probably want to replace it with a second daylight bulb instead, or else get the "freshwater" version of it (described at the bottom of the page) which has a 2nd bulb that outputs wavelengths specifically targeted for growing freshwater plants. It's theoretically still 40W (same as you have now) but properly reflected and properly distributed over the length of the whole tank, I suspect it would give you much more effective light than your plants are getting right now.

Good luck. Let us know what you decide!