Newbie..is this lighting ok for a 10g planted aquarium???

[Radthetad]

I have a 13watt 6500k daylight bulb...and i have an 15watt philip plant & aquarium bulb i bought from Home Depot..this bulb has a pinkish tint to it. Is this bulb ok to use or should i change it out???
Thank You

 

[Guest]

Either bulb is ok to use, but you have to remember the wpg rule. With the 13 watt, you will have 1.3 wpg, with the 15 watt, 1.5 wpg.

You really want to get 2 wpg minimum, and that is for low-light plants. If you want high-light plants, shoot for 4 wpg.

did you read this post? Great place to start.

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/viewtopic.php?t=8935

Good luck!

 

[Guest]

Actually on a 10 gallon tank you would really want to have a minimum of 3 wpg as the wpg rule breaks down on small tanks. I have a 10 gallon right now with 65 watts on it and it's going fine.

 

[tkos]

I have 2.6 watts per gallon in my 10 gallon but from those spiral screw in compact flourescents, so I assume the quality of the light is a lot , lower. I have great success with an amazon sword, water sprite, java fern and a floating lily plant. I have no added CO2 or anything but gravel for a bottom. No luck with foxtail. It stayed healthy but never grew any.

1.5 watts per gallon will suffice but you just have to choose your plants more carefully. The Java family (moss and fern) will do fine in the tank as will water sprite (IME).

 

[Radthetad]

Thank You for the replies. I am not just using one bulb. I am using both of them so that would bring my wpg to about 2.8 im guessing. I was just making sure the philip 15watt aquarium & plant bulb was ok. It just seems that its not as bright with the pinkish tint to it.

Thanks

 

[betowess]

I just bought a couple of those 15 watt phillips on a ten gallon and I'm not too impressed either, though it is a little early to tell. I'm starting to see new growth on Elodia with them now that I am paying attention to ferts and adding a little Excell for CO2. They may be adequate, though probably not prolific. HTH

 

[Radthetad]

Thanks for the information. I questioning if i should just swap it out for the Coralife Nutrigrow Bulb or Coralife Spectramax Super Daylight Bulb. Do you think that would be better?

 

[Sinuhe]

My 10 gallon is doing just fine with one 15W daylight bulb. It's got a fastgrowing Green Hygro and all. I'm confused with the recommended wattage amounts. On my 33 gallon I have a total of 36W with two tubes, and getting any more than that would require getting a light with 3 or more tubes, which I've never seen.

 

[Guest]

Here in the US you can get fixtures with three tubes. But normally we go to compact florescent lights to get to higher wattages.

Hygro will grow under low light, but it looks terrible with large amounts of space between the internodes.

 

[Sati]

You can also custom-build a hood to accomodate more bulbs...

Great link, corvuscorax! I bookmarked that baby :]