Hi there. I'm getting ready for a massive plant order from peabodies paradise. I have three (kinda 4, I need some floaters for my chi) I have a 20 gal axolotl tank that will be lighted by two 100 watt 6500k bulbs, a 10 gal serpae tank to be lighted by two 100 watt 6500k bulbs and a 5 gallon that will be lighted by one 100 watt 6500k bulb. And the chi doesn't have special lighting so I'm just gonna find a hardy low light floater for that tank. The 20 gal need to be planted hardy, the 10 gal is open to anything (my serpaes love plants but don't pick at them) and the 5 gal needs to be heavily planted for a pea puffer I'm getting in a few weeks, so fast growing would be great. Any suggestions?
Hello
my planted tank experience is nano: seems like a lot of light for low tech tanks, particularly the two smallest tanks. Plants can't take advantage of all that light without CO2 supplement (aka high tech)....
I suggest going to the Plants forum for suggestions. My low tech (13 w/ using Excel for CO2) tanks are most successful with java ferns of all types, bolbitis fern, and (unexpectedly) microsword.
W
That's a buttload of light! I had low light plants growing just fine with a 24watt bulb. You would need Co2 and daily dry ferts to avoid bad algae. And lotsa plants. Do you have any other options for lights?
when I first set up my 75 gal everything I read (before joining this site) said you need more light to grow plants. So I built a light set up using 7 26 W CFL bulbs (100 W equivalent) 5000K. Which gave me 2.4 watt/gal which some say is the high end of medium light.
When I joined this site I found out I had too much light with out a "High tech" CO2 and fertilizer program. The general info out there about lights coming with your aquarium not being enough are only part of the story. And watts/gal is an outdated system with advances in lighting.
I don't want to use compressed CO2 so I need to cut my light down. I've dropped to 5 bulbs and still debating if that is too much. Thinking I'll add liquid CO2 and traid out some bulbs for 20 W CFL (75W equivalent) 6500K bulbs
I'm setting up a dirted 20 gal tank and will be using 2 13 W CFL (60 W equivalent) 6500K to start with and will adjust if needed. That is the nice thing about CFL lights you can change wattage/amout of light with different bulbs not having to get a whole new fixture.
2 100W bulbs for a 20G? Wow. I barely run 2x25W CFL's and it's already melting all my floater plants. If you can raise the lights high enough from the tank maybe it would be fine.
I'm using the aluminum clamp-type lights. I found the idea on here and thought it was great. The clamp lights can go up to 100 watts so I figured that was good.
By "100 watt" do you mean the actual power the bulb uses, which might be 25 watts, or the number quoted by the manufacturer as the size incandescent bulb this replaces?
Everything was fine in my ten/w a 13W CFL till I did a 26W and then big time algae.
And I just read two threads which each had a similar respons from others who had used the 26W on 20g tanks(one of them not two bulbs) and also had algae issues till switching to the 13W ones.
Its 100 w equivalent. Okay so I'll definitely buy lower lights. This is definitely why I wanted to do research before I bought everything awesome. So maybe I'll go for 13w
I would not care about wattage, but see how much light I have. Your 100 watts bulbs are certainly excessive and they are not necessary. Do not exceed 40 watts, but choose most efficient with maximum light output bulbs. Also, consider how you can assist your plants by using natural sunlight coming from windows in your house.
I suggest some of the Articles (see Article tab along top of Planted Tank site) for a number of basic planted tank details. I think there may be a 'rule of thumb' about number of watts per gallon (for high tech/high CO2 and for low tech/lowC02) somewhere out there.
(I supplement my regular 8 hrs of 13w/6 gallons with 2 hours of an additional 13 watt.... When I went to 6 hours of supplement: brutal Algae Attack).
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