Plant Recommendations for a 55 Gallon FW

[TommyLiNy]

I ordered 2 36" 4 bulbs fixtures so well see how they work. They way I think is that if they were that crappy they wouldn't be on the market. But like rookie said I did read many mixed reviews about them so I guess only time will tell. I'm going to put an actinic in each too to lower my watts at 1st to see how that works because I don't really want to go the CO2 route either (well not yet atleast lol). Best of luck!

Sent from my T-Mobile myTouch 3G Slide using Aquarium

 

[McLumpy]

I ordered 2 36" 4 bulbs fixtures so well see how they work. They way I think is that if they were that crappy they wouldn't be on the market. But like rookie said I did read many mixed reviews about them so I guess only time will tell. I'm going to put an actinic in each too to lower my watts at 1st to see how that works because I don't really want to go the CO2 route either (well not yet atleast lol). Best of luck!

Sent from my T-Mobile myTouch 3G Slide using Aquarium

Thanks! Best of luck w/ your fixtures! Definitely stop back by to let me know how well they work.

 

[daileene]

I think what he meant is, if you ended up getting the HO fixture, you don't have to use all the 130W. Just use one daylight bulb and change the other one for an actinic bulb so you can have the 54W. Then it becomes a low light setting that way. As what he said, you could also accommodate medium light plants as well.

In the long run, if you decided you want and are ready for a CO2, so you can get more variety of plants, just change the actinic bulb to a daylight bulb, then you have a high lighting fixture....

Actinic will not help plant growth but can give a good coloration to the fish...but in this case, also lower the wattage so you can have low light setting.

I hope I am translating it right...LOL...If not, I know they will jump in anytime....right jonathan? hehehe!

 

[daileene]

my comment above was referring to MFDs comment

 

[McLumpy]

Thanks for clarifying MFD's post, Daileene. It makes a little more sense now. No offense to you, MFD, I just wasn't absorbing the thoughts in your post well enough.

Ok, sooooooo... the Odyssea PC fixture I found on that site comes w/ 2x 65W PC 50/50 Combo lamps. If I were to keep the Daylight bulb that comes w/ it and replace the other bulb w/ an Actinic bulb it will be a total of 54 watts? How is that possible if the Daylight bulb itself is 65 watts?

Am I confused about something here? Or was it meant that I needed to replace both bulbs w/ lower wattage bulbs? That would mean I need (1) 27 watt Daylight Bulb and (1) 27 watt Actinic Bulb in order to achieve a total of 54 watts, right?

 

[McLumpy]

No responses? Okie, dokie.

Well, don't worry about it, I've decided to just go w/ low-light plants. If my Amazon Sword makes it... awesome! If not, I'm only out $5. As much as I hate to be that limited on plant selection, I just can't afford to buy a HO T5 fixture and replace the bulbs too. Plus, I need enough money to buy the plants, right?

Here's my plan: I've decided to purchase the Aqualight T5 Double Linear Strip Light, (this will give me a total of 56w). However, instead of buying (2) 24" fixtures, I'm going to purchase a 48". It just so happens that Big Al's has this one on sale for only $40, (reg. $64)!! I read all of the reviews and it looks like the majority of the posters had success w/ this fixture when it came to their low-light plants.

I'm sure I'll upgrade to a better fixture in the future. But for now, this will suffice. I do appreciate all the help you guys have given me! I will, w/o a doubt, reference back to this thread when the time is right.

Now, what about low-light plants? I'm annoyed w/ the chain fish stores around here, so I'm seriously considering buying my plants online. Does anyone have any good sites for me to check out?

 

[Mr. Limpet]

I do low light, no cO2 or ferts with a single 6500k/17 watt bulb and they are doing good. The anacharis grows the best

Here's my list: Moss ball (2), hornwort, java fern, java moss, water wisteria, anacharis (4 bunches that my Moors love to eat), cabomba, water onion (2) and some kind of floating wisteria or sprite (not sure what, but my fancy fantail munches it and danios hide in it).

Hope this helps and good luck.

Sent from my Epic 4G

 

[McLumpy]

I do low light, no cO2 or ferts with a single 6500k/17 watt bulb and they are doing good. The anacharis grows the best

Here's my list: Moss ball (2), hornwort, java fern, java moss, water wisteria, anacharis (4 bunches that my Moors love to eat), cabomba, water onion (2) and some kind of floating wisteria or sprite (not sure what, but my fancy fantail munches it and danios hide in it).

Hope this helps and good luck.

Sent from my Epic 4G

Thanks for the plant list! I did research a few of them, and some, (can't recall which ones), are shown to requre moderate lighting. Yet, you only have a total of 17 watts and have been successful? What size is your tank?

I really like the Anacharis, Hornwort, and Java Fern. I would also like to get some sort of plush grass mounds. However, I'm still stuck w/ the possibilty of my Pleco destroying them. So far the plants I have in the tank have yet to be touched. Of course, he eats well and has never accepted any veggies that I've offered to him. From what I've read, if you keep the Pleco well-fed, they will show little to no interest in the plants. I guess all I can do is take a chance.

 

[Mr. Limpet]

Thanks for the plant list! I did research a few of them, and some, (can't recall which ones), are shown to requre moderate lighting. Yet, you only have a total of 17 watts and have been successful? What size is your tank?

I really like the Anacharis, Hornwort, and Java Fern. I would also like to get some sort of plush grass mounds. However, I'm still stuck w/ the possibilty of my Pleco destroying them. So far the plants I have in the tank have yet to be touched. Of course, he eats well and has never accepted any veggies that I've offered to him. From what I've read, if you keep the Pleco well-fed, they will show little to no interest in the plants. I guess all I can do is take a chance.

I have a 37 tall and everything but the lower part of the hornwort does good. Some (it) are buried behind DW, so I don't fret about it too much. I have 2 Black Moors and a baby silver fantail (my GF loves the Raider colors , but trying to match 49ers was impossible ). They tear stuff up when it's new, unless I hide it so I know what you mean. My shoal of danios love the forest though .

Good luck and if you find something new/interesting, please update us.

Sent from my Epic 4G

 

[Vircomore]

Not sure if someone has answered your Actinic question yet, but here it is:

Aquatic plants can't "use" or "see" Actinic light. It's outside of the spectrum that they can use to do photosynthesis.

So, if you have a 27W Daylight and a 27W Actinic:

* Your human eyes will see 54W of light.
* The Plants will only have 27W of light to grow on.

If you replaced the Actinic with another daylight, you'll get a more "sunlighty" look and you plants will get the full 54W but their growth may be hindered by CO2 levels.

Co2 is not necessary to grow plants, but there is a certain point where no amount of additional light will grow plants any faster without adding CO2.

 

[Vircomore]

After taking a look at the fixture you linked on the previous page, I can see your confusion.

Basically, that fixture comes with 2 "50/50" bulbs that are 65W each. A 50/50 bulb is a fluorescent bulb that - Instead of having 1 plug on either end - it has both plugs on the same end. The 50/50 means that one half of the bulb is Daylight, and the other half is Actinic.

So what you're really getting is going to look like this on the bottom (epic drawing skills inc)

|---------------------------------------------|
|=|32.5w of Actinic-}.......{32.5w of Actinic-|=|
|=|32.5w of Daylight}.......{32.5w of Daylight|=|
|---------------------------------------------|

Each bulb plugs into the one side of the fixture. So you're getting a total of 65W Daylight and 65W of Actinic.

 

[McLumpy]

Thanks for the input, Vircomore!

If I understand this correctly, I should go w/ the Odyssea 48" 130W Power Compact Light Fixture Extendable Series because technically I will be supplying the plants w/ only 65w of light for growth. And the other bulb in the fixture is rendered useless as far as helping the plants grow, (more or less it’s used for making the aquarium more aesthetically pleasing). Is this correct? If so, do I need to go the Co2 route if I’m only supplying 65w of beneficial light?

Nice drawing btw… totally epic!

 

[Vircomore]

1. Unless I'm misunderstanding the bulbs that the company includes, it's not that 1 bulb is completely useless, it's that 1/2 of both bulbs are Actinic. So if you wanted to go 100% daylight, you'd have to replace both bulbs with daylight bulbs. I couldn't show it very well in my drawing, but the Actinic and the Daylight on each side are actually fused as one continuous "really long U shaped" bulb, so if you want to get rid of the Actinic, you'd have to dump the entire bulb.

2. The question of Co2 is I think more of preference. I watch YouTube videos of a guy who does all his planted tanks without a speck of Co2, but he uses 100% dirt as his substrate.

At the end of the day - plants aren't going to "die of Co2 starvation" - they just wont grow as fast as the light could be making them grow. Using Co2 also introduces a whole new arena of water parameters, because if your Co2 input is too much for the plants to process - it could cause a PH crash which would be very unfun.

 

[Vircomore]

Here's a link that shows you the types of bulb I'm talking about.

Aquarium Lighting: Coralife Compact Fluorescent Straight Pin Bulbs

The picture doesn't show the other end, but it basically ends in a U.

The difference is that - with a "50/50" bulb" - one tube will be white, and the other tube will be a bluish color. If you wanted to go 100% daylight, you'd have to buy 2 of the pure 10,000K bulbs to get rid of the "blue tubes".

 

[McLumpy]

Yep, I understand about the 1-single piece continuous loop bulb and I would like to keep the bulb that comes with that fixture.

I guess what I'm worried about here is either adding too much or too little beneficial lighting. I'm also wanting this to be a low-maintenance project, (which is why I don't want to go w/ Co2). I would be happy if my plants grew at a steady pace, as opposed to too fast to the point where they would require constant pruning. My husband thinks I spend too much time on my tanks as it is.

 

[McLumpy]

I have a 37 tall and everything but the lower part of the hornwort does good. Some (it) are buried behind DW, so I don't fret about it too much. I have 2 Black Moors and a baby silver fantail (my GF loves the Raider colors , but trying to match 49ers was impossible ). They tear stuff up when it's new, unless I hide it so I know what you mean. My shoal of danios love the forest though .

Good luck and if you find something new/interesting, please update us.

Sent from my Epic 4G

Raiders? 49ers?

*ahem*

<------------ Chiefs fan

 

[Vircomore]

Understandable, and I'm pretty much in the same boat. I actually just upgraded the lighting on my 26gal Bowfront (fairly tall tank) - but I went the LED route because I had some extra tax return burning a hole in my pocket and liked the energy savings.

Here's the unit I bought:

Aquarium Lighting & LED Lights: Marineland LED Double Bright Lighting System

I got the 18-24" version, and on a tank that's 21" left-to-right it lights it up enough to grow Java Moss, Java Fern, Anubias Nana, Anacharis, Ludwigia Repens, and (another plant I haven't been able to identify but it was in a Petco "variety" tank and seems to be actually aquatic)

I've been trying to find an accurate conversion of "LED Watts" to "Plant Watts" because the LEDs only consume 6W total, but I haven't found an accurate explanation.

 

[Mr. Limpet]

Raiders? 49ers?

*ahem*

<------------ Chiefs fan

Why mad? Both our (mine/gf's) teams s*ck!

Besides I'm more a MLB fan. I found a black & orange (SF Giants colors) fancy fantail last week at a new store up north, but my GF said no more goldfish . hehehe.

I do have one other plant I forgot to mention, but not sure what it is. Has long, thin/narrow blades and aside from one of the Moors "trimming it back" it's doing good too.

Sent from my Epic 4G

 

[Vircomore]

I should add that all of those plants are growing with nothing but gravel as the substrate - no root tabs, and no fertilizers except for a standard dose of Seachem Flourish once a week.

 

[McLumpy]

Understandable, and I'm pretty much in the same boat. I actually just upgraded the lighting on my 26gal Bowfront (fairly tall tank) - but I went the LED route because I had some extra tax return burning a hole in my pocket and liked the energy savings.

Here's the unit I bought:

Aquarium Lighting & LED Lights: Marineland LED Double Bright Lighting System

I got the 18-24" version, and on a tank that's 21" left-to-right it lights it up enough to grow Java Moss, Java Fern, Anubias Nana, Anacharis, Ludwigia Repens, and (another plant I haven't been able to identify but it was in a Petco "variety" tank and seems to be actually aquatic)

I've been trying to find an accurate conversion of "LED Watts" to "Plant Watts" because the LEDs only consume 6W total, but I haven't found an accurate explanation.

Gah! Now you're bringing up LED's? lol Seriously though, I came across some really nice fixtures that have tube lights and LED's. If I had the money, I would love something like that!

Why mad? Both our (mine/gf's) teams s*ck!

Besides I'm more a MLB fan. I found a black & orange (SF Giants colors) fancy fantail last week at a new store up north, but my GF said no more goldfish . hehehe.

I do have one other plant I forgot to mention, but not sure what it is. Has long, thin/narrow blades and aside from one of the Moors "trimming it back" it's doing good too.

Sent from my Epic 4G

Nah, I'm not mad... was just puttin' on my game face for ya. The Chiefs suck too. Cassel showed potential, then *boom*, it was gone. Ok, now, stop getting off topic, I'm trying to figure out this lighting stuff.