Eclipse f30t8 enough?

2478 Views 8 Replies 3 Participants Last post by JenThePlantGeek, Dec 4, 2007

icex

Discussion Starter · Dec 4, 2007

Hi guys, I'm new to the site here, not neccesarily new to the fish tank hobby, but definitaly new to keeping a planted tank. I just recently bought a 46 gallon tank, and it came with a eclipse f30t8 bulb. The hood has mirrors which pretty much light up my room, but I'm just wondering what you guys think. Is this enough for my two plants so far? I plan to have many more plants after I get a couple of other fish (clown loachs mostly, and probaly more tiger barbs) and perhaps a paintball c02 system. I'm not sure what type of plants they are actualy, but I just bought them and some of the leafs look a little brown.. To much light? To little? Heres a picture, if it needs to be closer just let me know. Oh, and the tank also has a 200 watt heater that stays at about 80 degrees.

Thanks.

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JenThePlantGeek

· #2 · Dec 4, 2007

Looks like you bought Bacopa monnieri, also called moneywort. Nice little plant. When it grows nice and tall, clip the stems (roughly in half) and replant them. New plants will grow from the place where you clipped and the stem top will grow new roots. Try spacing the stems out slightly more, so they aren't all bunched together at the bottom, and if they have a weight take it off. Poking it in the substrate should hold until they grow some roots, hopefully your clown loaches won't uproot them!

I'm not familiar with your lights, I'll have to let someone else chime in.

Your CO2 system will be hands down the best thing you can do for your tank. I have two 46 gallons at home, great size!

What kind of filter are you using?

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icex

Discussion Starter · #3 · Dec 4, 2007

JenThePlantGeek said:
Looks like you bought Bacopa monnieri, also called moneywort. Nice little plant. When it grows nice and tall, clip the stems (roughly in half) and replant them. New plants will grow from the place where you clipped and the stem top will grow new roots. Try spacing the stems out slightly more, so they aren't all bunched together at the bottom, and if they have a weight take it off. Poking it in the substrate should hold until they grow some roots, hopefully your clown loaches won't uproot them!

I'm not familiar with your lights, I'll have to let someone else chime in.

Your CO2 system will be hands down the best thing you can do for your tank. I have two 46 gallons at home, great size!

What kind of filter are you using?

Hi Jen and thank you for your reply. Yes that is the moneywort plant, I couldent think of the name until you said it. I am using a penguin 200 bio-wheel filter, I bought it because I have heard nothing but good of the penguin/marineland filters. I may even get another one to put on the other side of the tank, a bit bigger filter to keep it clean.

I will try spreading them out some sometime today.. I may try the cutting thing and replanting them later on when I get a c02 system. That may be next week actualy..

I hope their roots will grow in my gravel. Thats not from a petshop actualy. They wanted $16.99 for 25 lbs and I said no thanks, so I went to home depot and bought a bag of pea gravel for $2.99. Took me about a hour and a half to wash all of it in hot water, but in the end its about $40 tax included saved.

Hopefully my light will be enough. Its definitaly bright. What do you think of the brown leafs on the plant? Are they normal? Thanks!

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JenThePlantGeek

· #4 · Dec 4, 2007

The brown leaves come from stress in shipping and transport, and most likely because they were bunched up and some of the leaves were damaged. A lot of times if you leave the weights on, the bottoms of the stems will begin to rot. If you see this, you should unbunch them and give them some room to breath. You don't have to spread them out *too* much.

The biowheel is a great filter for fish - fantastic really, but not really made for plants because it tends to outgas a lot of CO2. That doesn't mean it won't work though! Make sure to keep your water level topped off - no splashing - and that will help a lot. Some people have had success taking the wheel part of the biowheel off.

Pea gravel is pretty inert and isn't built for growing plants either, but that doesn't mean that you can't do it! There's a few things that will help. You can add root tabs to it. If your tank isn't too established yet you could drain it and put laterite underneath the gravel (this is a very messy option, probably not the best idea), or even use pots when you do other more root-feeding plants. People will use peat and plain garden soil to pot plants in ceramic pots, topped off with a thick layer of gravel to keep the soil out of the water column, and this works very well also. When a good deal of mulm from dead leaves, food, and fish poop builds up that will also help.

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limnidi

· #5 · Dec 4, 2007

F30t8 should be a 30W bulb. If you only have one such bulb, I do not think it will be enough for a 46gal tank. You will need around 2 WPG to be able to grow plants in this tank(ie. around 90W of light). I was able to maintain some moss and java fern in a 30 gal tank with 30W of light over it, but nothing really grew in it. It was a tank that I dumped my extra plants in.

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icex

Discussion Starter · #6 · Dec 4, 2007

JenThePlantGeek said:
The brown leaves come from stress in shipping and transport, and most likely because they were bunched up and some of the leaves were damaged. A lot of times if you leave the weights on, the bottoms of the stems will begin to rot. If you see this, you should unbunch them and give them some room to breath. You don't have to spread them out *too* much.

The biowheel is a great filter for fish - fantastic really, but not really made for plants because it tends to outgas a lot of CO2. That doesn't mean it won't work though! Make sure to keep your water level topped off - no splashing - and that will help a lot. Some people have had success taking the wheel part of the biowheel off.

Pea gravel is pretty inert and isn't built for growing plants either, but that doesn't mean that you can't do it! There's a few things that will help. You can add root tabs to it. If your tank isn't too established yet you could drain it and put laterite underneath the gravel (this is a very messy option, probably not the best idea), or even use pots when you do other more root-feeding plants. People will use peat and plain garden soil to pot plants in ceramic pots, topped off with a thick layer of gravel to keep the soil out of the water column, and this works very well also. When a good deal of mulm from dead leaves, food, and fish poop builds up that will also help.

I have an idea of what to do for the plants. Take the gravel from my 10 gallon tank and put around the plants, and maybe cover it with the pea gravel. Do you think this would work better?

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icex

Discussion Starter · #7 · Dec 4, 2007

limnidi said:
F30t8 should be a 30W bulb. If you only have one such bulb, I do not think it will be enough for a 46gal tank. You will need around 2 WPG to be able to grow plants in this tank(ie. around 90W of light). I was able to maintain some moss and java fern in a 30 gal tank with 30W of light over it, but nothing really grew in it. It was a tank that I dumped my extra plants in.

Its a pretty bright light, because of the mirrors/aluminum in the hood that reflects all the light to the bottom of the tank. It lights up my whole room to be honest. Do you still think I need another light? I am going to petsmart next wensday and may pick up another one if you don't think its enough, but I don't realy have room on the top of the tank for a extra lol.

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icex

Discussion Starter · #8 · Dec 4, 2007

JenThePlantGeek said:
The brown leaves come from stress in shipping and transport, and most likely because they were bunched up and some of the leaves were damaged. A lot of times if you leave the weights on, the bottoms of the stems will begin to rot. If you see this, you should unbunch them and give them some room to breath. You don't have to spread them out *too* much.

The biowheel is a great filter for fish - fantastic really, but not really made for plants because it tends to outgas a lot of CO2. That doesn't mean it won't work though! Make sure to keep your water level topped off - no splashing - and that will help a lot. Some people have had success taking the wheel part of the biowheel off.

Pea gravel is pretty inert and isn't built for growing plants either, but that doesn't mean that you can't do it! There's a few things that will help. You can add root tabs to it. If your tank isn't too established yet you could drain it and put laterite underneath the gravel (this is a very messy option, probably not the best idea), or even use pots when you do other more root-feeding plants. People will use peat and plain garden soil to pot plants in ceramic pots, topped off with a thick layer of gravel to keep the soil out of the water column, and this works very well also. When a good deal of mulm from dead leaves, food, and fish poop builds up that will also help.

Jen, I spaced the plants 3-4 togehter in each planting. Is this enough? The plants actualy have roots devoloping now. I am going to use some of the gravel from my 10 gallon tank as perhaps a fertilizer to put around the plants.

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JenThePlantGeek

· #9 · Dec 4, 2007

Yup - should be! You just want to give them room to grow.

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