How much watts

1420 Views 9 Replies 5 Participants Last post by CobraGuppy, Jan 17, 2008

CobraGuppy

Discussion Starter · Jan 16, 2008

Hi everyone,

I might get a 5 gallon tank (the regular glass rectangular kind) and get a betta. Filter will be a aquaclear 20 so that i can adjust it, i will probably replace the carbon with purigen too.

How much watts should i have over the tank? I dont want algae, thats for sure. Plants in thinking about are pretty low tech, java moss or anubias. No rooted plants. Thats because i will have just black gravel mixed with a little of what ever color my betta is.

I just need to know how much watts would be good so that the anubias and moss will live but not enough so that it causes an algae outbreak.

thanks for any replies!

also, can someone give me the dimensions of the tank? That way, i can be on the lookout for approriate pieces of driftwood etc

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skabooya

· #2 · Jan 16, 2008

I have 23watts of CF over my 4 gal tank but i def have algae. No matter what you will have algae even in a very low light set up early on even if it is only a little bit. You need to achieve a balance so that algae will be little to non existant.
For a small low light tank I would say in the range of 15watts. Try not to go lower than 10.

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pdc2104

· #3 · Jan 16, 2008

I have 11 watts in my 5 gallon Minibow tank. I have anubias, cabomba and java fern and they grow very well. Algae is minimal.

I also added a few stalks of wisteria and that grows TOO well.:eek5:

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Homer_Simpson

· #4 · Jan 16, 2008

CobraGuppy said:
Hi everyone,

I might get a 5 gallon tank (the regular glass rectangular kind) and get a betta. Filter will be a aquaclear 20 so that i can adjust it, i will probably replace the carbon with purigen too.

How much watts should i have over the tank? I dont want algae, thats for sure. Plants in thinking about are pretty low tech, java moss or anubias. No rooted plants. Thats because i will have just black gravel mixed with a little of what ever color my betta is.

I just need to know how much watts would be good so that the anubias and moss will live but not enough so that it causes an algae outbreak.

thanks for any replies!

also, can someone give me the dimensions of the tank? That way, i can be on the lookout for approriate pieces of driftwood etc

I have a 5 gallon rectangular experimental tank: http://azdhan.googlepages.com/thelostworld2 see the Tom Barr type setup.

It is only lit my a 10 watt corallife colarmax fluorescent bulb in the canopy
No algae whasoever, not even any "F" in diatom algae. No BGA, black brush/black beard, no green dust algae, no thread algae, no hair algae, nothing. The lighting is on from 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. off from 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. and on again form 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. 7 hours total. The plants are growing well. I have to feed the oto catfish and Amano Shrimp zucchini/cucumber almost daily to keep them from starving due to lack of algae.

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danakin

· #5 · Jan 16, 2008

skabooya said:
I have 23watts of CF over my 4 gal tank but i def have algae. No matter what you will have algae even in a very low light set up early on even if it is only a little bit. You need to achieve a balance so that algae will be little to non existant.
For a small low light tank I would say in the range of 15watts. Try not to go lower than 10.

While the WPG rule doesn't quite apply to smaller tanks, nearly 6WPG with no CO2 is bound to give you algae problems.

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CobraGuppy

Discussion Starter · #6 · Jan 16, 2008

what is CF?

I guess i was asking a bit too much for algae to be not even there

I just dont want it so that every single day i have to scrape it, a little greenspot doesnt bother me aslong as its not acrlic (my first tank had that and it was acrylic so i scratched it up so badly no knowing D

I might go with a 20 watt bulb. Should i get any special kind or is the twisty fluroescent ones ok? Dont know if that even helps the plants with anything.

I might have to get a higher watt though because i will have driftwood in there which will leech tannins and maybe indian almond leaves for the betta.

thanks

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danakin

· #7 · Jan 17, 2008

CF stands for Compact Fluorescent, the twisty fluorescent bulbs you can change your incandescent ones over to.

If you go with a 20 watt CF bulb, buy one of the "Daylight" or "Sunlight" bulbs. The color temperature on those is about 6500k, which is pretty good for growing.

Also, if you ever see a term on the forums you don't know, check out this glossary/FAQ. Pretty useful info!

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Homer_Simpson

· #8 · Jan 17, 2008

CobraGuppy said:
..I guess i was asking a bit too much for algae to be not even there I just dont want it so that every single day i have to scrape it..

You were not asking too much. You just need to stop making it more complicated than it really needs to be. The formula for a algae free low maintenance tank is very simple and my tank does not have a smidgen of algae as proof.

10 Watt Compact Fluorecent + 5 gallon tank jam packed with plants + 8 hours lighting duration + daily use of Excel or some c02 injection + some weekly fertilization with (dash of nitrogen, potassium, phosphate, and some fluorish comprehensive micro fert or yamato green or Tropical Master Grow, etc.,) = 100% algae free tank. Pretty simple.

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skabooya

· #9 · Jan 17, 2008

danakin said:
While the WPG rule doesn't quite apply to smaller tanks, nearly 6WPG with no CO2 is bound to give you algae problems.

Ive had my tank up for quite a while now. I think i set it up september- ish.
Algae problems at first because it was a new tank but now nothing. I do dose flourish excel daily about 5 drops and my tank is heavily planted.

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CobraGuppy

Discussion Starter · #10 · Jan 17, 2008

hm, well i dont want to do a c02 tank and i dont want it to be heavily planted xD

I do have excel though! Should i dose it everyday? and should i get the whole line (i think there are two other ones) since i wont be having any other fertilizers except fish poo

also, about the 10 cf bulb, the bulb itself is 10 watts right? Because those stuff say like "gives out 50 watts of light but uses only 15 volts" stuff like that.

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