[streamlined]

Hi, I have a question about the wattage I should use for CFL lighting. I'm looking at putting together a simple 10 gallon planted tank. I am looking at having the following plants:

Bacopa
Dwarf Hair Grass
Dwarf Sagittaria
Java Moss
Moneywort
Pennywort

My plan for lighting is to replace the incandescent bulbs in the stock hood that came with the tank for 6500k CFL bulbs. However, I don't know what wattage would be suitable for growing these types of plants. I could paint or tape the underside of the hood to increase reflectivity. Distance to substrate should be around 12". With two bulbs in the hood, which wattage would be ideal for growing these plants in a 10 gallon tank?

Thanks for the help!

 

[burr740]

If you are running co2, may can get by with 18-23 watt bulbs. 23 watt bulbs can get fairly warm, and depending on the size of the stock hood, the bulbs may touch or be very close to the plastic housing. This may or may not be a problem.

No CO2 then 13-18 watt.

Paint the inside of the reflector flat white is probably the best bet. Krylon Fusion is made for plastic.

 

[spore]

Bacopa
Dwarf Hair Grass
Dwarf Sagittaria
Java Moss
Moneywort
Pennywort

All these plants are good with lower light levels. As far as CFL bulb wattage, I'd suggest you have a look at this post in the PAR data for spiral bulbs thread.

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/10-lighting/85667-par-data-spiral-power-saver-bulbs-lighting-question-2.html#post837592

Hoppy gives some extrapolated charts for other wattages.. but this assumes a good reflector. I'd probably start with two 9w just to be safe, or maybe even 14w if you are feeling saucy. As burr740 said - If you are running a pressurized co2 system, then you'd have some leeway to start a little higher on the wattage

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/10-lighting/85667-par-data-spiral-power-saver-bulbs-lighting-question-5.html#post904062

 

[Seattle_Aquarist]

Hi, I have a question about the wattage I should use for CFL lighting. I'm looking at putting together a simple 10 gallon planted tank. I am looking at having the following plants:

Bacopa
Dwarf Hair Grass
Dwarf Sagittaria
Java Moss
Moneywort
Pennywort

My plan for lighting is to replace the incandescent bulbs in the stock hood that came with the tank for 6500k CFL bulbs. However, I don't know what wattage would be suitable for growing these types of plants. I could paint or tape the underside of the hood to increase reflectivity. Distance to substrate should be around 12". With two bulbs in the hood, which wattage would be ideal for growing these plants in a 10 gallon tank?

Thanks for the help!

Hi streamlined,

Welcome to TPT! What part of Canada are you in?

A 10 gallon can make a fine planted tank, even without CO2 or fancy filters. I too replaced the 2X incandescent bulbs in my 10 gallon fixture with these 2X 10 watt CFL 6500K lamps from Walmart. They provide a nice even light, [email protected] when the bulbs are new and [email protected] with 12 month old bulbs. You could possibly go up to a 13-18 watt CFL (different style) to improve the PAR reading but excessive light = excessive algae. Here is the 10 gallon dosed with Seachem Flourish and Seachem Excel for ferts.

10 Gallon Low Tech

 

[streamlined]

Thanks for all the advice and help everyone. I think this is the setup I will be going for, as it's cheap, readily available, and lots of people seem to go with it. I can increase the wattage later if I end up doing CO2, but 10 watts seems to be a reasonable compromise between what people have suggested, so I believe that that's what I'll be using. Very grateful for all the advice, thanks to all!