totally lost...

[demosthenes]

I have had a running 10g planted tank with eco-complete and DIY CO2 for a little over a month now, but all of my plants are growing really slowly and don't seem to be doing that well, except for my wisteria. i currently have a Verilux desk lamp with unkown wattage over my open-topped tank. I own a lid for it, but the light burned out and i don't know what kind of light to replace it with. theres like a million kinds of 18" lights at my LFS, but none of them are more than 15W.

anyway, i want all of my plants to grow well (mostly hygros, ludwigia, myriophyllum, java moss, an amazon sword, microswords, an anubias (on driftwood), a crypt, and some others.) what type of lighting should i get to make all of my plants grow well? i have a hood with the standard 18" lighting fixture, but i can buy clip-on-the-back lamps or whatever or the double thing over the top or something. budget doesnt really matter (for the most part, i mean i dont want to spend TOO much), but my parents would rather i grow aquarium plants than "the real green stuff" so theyll spend whatever, but within reason.

[epicfish]

You can get another hood for a 10g tank that has screw-in sockets so you can use screw-in CF lamps (~23W each if you can find them). That will allow your plants to grow a bit better than your desk lamp.

You may be able to find a 20" 28W Coralife fixture which fits over the tank.

You can also go to www.ahsupply.com, give Kim the dimensions of your burnt out hood, and see if the 1x36W PC retrofit kit will fit the hood.

Alternatively, you can get a single Satellite (1x40W) to sit over the tank.

For even more lighting, a dual Satellite/Orbit (2x40W) fixture will fit, giving you 80 watts of lighting over the tank.

There's a ton of options. I would either go with the AHSupply 1x36W retrofit kit or the 1x40W Satellite fixture. In the past, I've setup a dual Orbit fixture, but without adequate CO2 injection, you're just asking for trouble.

[demosthenes]

but wouldnt that be too strong lighting? most of my plants are "medium high" light requirement. i think the retrofitted 1x36W PC sounds like my best option, but thats still 3.6 wpg. it sounds awesome! but will too much light be a problem?

PS woah, you really know your lighting! immediately after reading that i was like "wow. that is REALLY impressive." (edit: that sounded pretty sarcastic, but im totally serious)

[epicfish]

The 1x36W AHSupply retrofit kit is a LOT of light still. If you start the tank heavily planted with DIY CO2 and fertilizers, it should be OK.

If you don't want all that work, the Coralife 28W unit will be just fine for you.

And yes, I did quite a bit of research and made some mistakes when first starting out. I've had tanks of various lengths starting from nano tanks of 6" all the way up to 60", so I've owned more than my fair share of fixtures.

[demosthenes]

i suppose that would explain it :P
i guess i'll get the coralife fixture.
but i have an anubias barteri sort of in the center of my tank, and it would be right under the light. wouldnt it get a ton of algae and stuff? i don't know how/with what i could shade it a little. you can look at my profile at:
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/yo...o=view&id=1010
to see how it looks now. or at least a few weeks ago. since then i've added ludwigia and ambulia and some pennywort. it looks good in the picture, but thats because most of the plants are relatively new and were in good condition at the LFS.

[epicfish]

Good setup overall.

You can decide between the 28W and the 36W. If you ever want low-lying carpet plants like glosso or maybe HC, the 36W retrofit kit will be better.

It's not a simple difference of 8 watts between the two units. The 36W AHS kit has superb reflectors when compared to the flat reflectors of the Coralife unit. My best guess is that the difference is close to 15-18 "watts" between the two fixtures.

With such light levels, you're going to want to manage it using:
1) CO2
2) NPK + micro/trace fertilizers
3) Excel dosing
4) Heavily planted tank to start

Good luck!

[demosthenes]

alright thanks a lot!
can you grow all plants under higher light? i'd be concerned about my lower light plants under a 2.8 or over 3.6wpg setup. or should i be?

Ps i'm not (currently) planning on growing HC or glosso, mostly microswords and hygros now, and i'm hoping to add a bunch of crypts later (when i take out some of the larger plants for a big tank im getting soon)