RachelG
Aquarium Advice Activist
Lately I have been wanting to upgrade my 20 gallon long to a bigger tank, and possibly be able to get one tall enough to add an angel fish. I was eyeing a nice Visio 45 gallon 25-inch-tall tank and found a decent price as well as a good-looking stand, but when I mentioned that I was excited to see how tall my stem plants would climb in this tank(My rotala rotundifolia grows like weeds in my 20 long, and I have to trim it a lot) the shop owner mentioned that plants are not doable in a tank this tall because the light would not reach the bottom. He told me there are very high-light fixtures that would get around this, but they are insanely expensive(I can't afford a $200 light). Now I'm at a loss and feeling very depressed, because I was looking forward to going with this tank. I want an angel fish, and I want my tanks to be heavily planted. Is it really not doable without an expensive light fixture?
My current tank is a 20 long with rotala rotundifolia, Java moss, Java ferns, anubias, crypt spiralis, crypt wendtii, and floating crystalwort. These all do very well in this tank. I have just added red ludwigia so I'm not sure yet how that will fare. I use no co2 as it is too expensive, but I dose Leaf Zone. For my lighting I went the cheap route and bought three aluminum lamps from Home Depot, and each has a 13 watt spiral 6500k fluorescent cfl bulb in it. They don't look like anything special sitting on the top glass cover but the tank has been doing well with these for over a year, and that's what matters. There is a picture below of one of these lamps sitting on my 5 gallon shrimp tank, which is also doing well with them(That glass cover needs a good cleaning, I know.)
The plan was to move all of the above mentioned plants to the 45. I thought I would just get larger lamps with stronger cfl bulbs and set them on the tank's glass cover like I did with the 20 long, but the shopkeeper said it's too deep to work. Now I'm feeling discouraged from even upgrading. Help?
My current tank is a 20 long with rotala rotundifolia, Java moss, Java ferns, anubias, crypt spiralis, crypt wendtii, and floating crystalwort. These all do very well in this tank. I have just added red ludwigia so I'm not sure yet how that will fare. I use no co2 as it is too expensive, but I dose Leaf Zone. For my lighting I went the cheap route and bought three aluminum lamps from Home Depot, and each has a 13 watt spiral 6500k fluorescent cfl bulb in it. They don't look like anything special sitting on the top glass cover but the tank has been doing well with these for over a year, and that's what matters. There is a picture below of one of these lamps sitting on my 5 gallon shrimp tank, which is also doing well with them(That glass cover needs a good cleaning, I know.)
The plan was to move all of the above mentioned plants to the 45. I thought I would just get larger lamps with stronger cfl bulbs and set them on the tank's glass cover like I did with the 20 long, but the shopkeeper said it's too deep to work. Now I'm feeling discouraged from even upgrading. Help?
