Wanting to switch my ten gallon from fake to real plants

the 15w probably isnt going to be enough to keep any of those plants alive
except for the moss, which bareley needs any light
you probably want at least 25w for a ten gal most foreground plants are pretty high light, you can stick with moss and maybe use anubias or java ferns and you can just keep your hood right now
you can retrofit your hood to a medium socket base and use spiral cfls
2x 15w would distribute niceley

You could just buy a light online.Drs foster and smith is having a sale for coralife light fixtures

thats cool you have 3 female bettas in one tank!

what I would do is start another 10 gal tank and move them to them after the new tank establishes.

here is a good setup.

on a 10 gal tank,

1 5 lb bag of cheap potting soil ( I use heartland $1.00 wallmart) it don't
have the white stuff in it.
1 2 lb bag of aquarium rocks ( I just used standard pea gravel)

2 inches of soil, 1 inch of gravel

put potting soil in, then the gravel, stick a bowl on the gravel bed in thetank and pour declorinated water in the bowl spilling over to gently fill the tank.

use an over the side or dropin filter of your choice. plant your plants.

the single 15 w bulb will work with what you have providing the light bulb is a full spectrum bulb, ( not one of those purpleish light ) the light should be really white with a touch of blue ( 6800 K ) co2 is junk and it hard on the plants (they are pretty but don't last) and it hard on the livestock causing breif moments of lowered oxegen levels. I suggest you get your plants in either pots or mats because the small plants like to float.

if you feel that you don't have enough light get one of those cheap hoods that have the two screw type light bulb sockets and stick a pair of the full spectrum 40 watt compact flourescents ( small corkscrew)

and dump a whole bottle of cycle in the tank.

after planting, let the tank stabilize for a couple of weeks before adding fish. do a 50% water change with the water the livestock is currently in
then add your fish.


if you don't want to replace your tank, take one half of your under gravel filter out (if you have one) and in a pie pan put about a 1/2 inch of cheap potting sol in it, load a spray bottle up and spray it with some aquarium water, freeze the pan of soil, take it out and cut it into chunks so you can slide it under the existing gravel ( do this before it melts). install a dropin filter or an over the side to supplement filtration.

I just added some real plants to my 10 gallon. I switched out the 15 watt incandescent bulbs for the compact flourescent daylite bulbs. I think they are 13 watt (40 watt equivalent). The tank is brighter and the plants seem to be doing OK. I'm dosing with Excel every other day.