Greetings everyone. I've been reading these forums since probably around January. I wanted to do planted tanks from the get go but was easily scared off.
So the situation I am in, after getting a fair bit of fishkeeping experience in, I want to take the plunge into planted tanks. Want to start by converting an already active 10 gallon, which is more or less my test run tank for everything. Aquascaping, substrates, water conditions, these are all concepts I am extremely comfortable with. This is where you guys hopefully come in.
Lighting is the one point of confusion I can't seem to shake. I understand the WPG guideline and its limitations. Where my confusion comes in place is the seeming availability of options for a 10 gallon. I've been searching the internet for the best option for lighting for this little 10 gallon, and the most common things I can find are fluorescent hoods setup for T8 bulbs. Am I correct in my understanding that T5 will not fit in T8? Or is this the T5HO that are different? Are T8 bulbs enough to give at least mid-light quality for a 10 gallon? And the kelvin lighting ranges... I truly have no understanding of what is desirable from that statistic.
Overall, I am searching for recommendations. I am getting frustrated because it seems majority of folks plant much much larger tanks. I have every intention of going up in size but only if I can succeed in a smaller scale. Thank you in advance all!
So the situation I am in, after getting a fair bit of fishkeeping experience in, I want to take the plunge into planted tanks. Want to start by converting an already active 10 gallon, which is more or less my test run tank for everything. Aquascaping, substrates, water conditions, these are all concepts I am extremely comfortable with. This is where you guys hopefully come in.
Lighting is the one point of confusion I can't seem to shake. I understand the WPG guideline and its limitations. Where my confusion comes in place is the seeming availability of options for a 10 gallon. I've been searching the internet for the best option for lighting for this little 10 gallon, and the most common things I can find are fluorescent hoods setup for T8 bulbs. Am I correct in my understanding that T5 will not fit in T8? Or is this the T5HO that are different? Are T8 bulbs enough to give at least mid-light quality for a 10 gallon? And the kelvin lighting ranges... I truly have no understanding of what is desirable from that statistic.
Overall, I am searching for recommendations. I am getting frustrated because it seems majority of folks plant much much larger tanks. I have every intention of going up in size but only if I can succeed in a smaller scale. Thank you in advance all!