30 watts total!!!??? ughhhh

[LMOUTHBASS]

ok gang here's my scenerio -


got a 55 gal with two hoods thats the way the tank is the lighting fixture can only support lights that give of 17watts total in each hood - i bought "plant growing lights" that are flourescent at 15 watts so i have a total of 30w for the whole tank i know this is not much , but it's too expensive for me to buy a new fixture and light etc
can i grow low light plants in there such a crypts or java fern
i have been stocking up on Lutea which i a very nice looking crypt i guess, also thinking of of getting some green wendth, i have some melon swords that seem ok so far as well


i have flourite as the base substrate then pebbles and gravel on top of it i have a c02 machine i bought for 30 bucks it's kinda cheasy but shoul i use it you mix water and sugar in this canister and i guess it gasses of c0s i hjave used it for a month in the past not sure if it did much or not


so my game plan either way is low light plants so far i 've heard crypts, anubias and java are my options will these work and can you give me any specific names of plants that might make it???
thanks!!!

[~*LuvMyKribs*~]

I have a heavily planted 20 gal, i will post pics as soon as i learn to take them of tanks, that i have hardly any light for. I have one 15 w 'aqua-glo' florescent bulb that i leave on for a good 15 hrs a day.

I have anubias, crypts, java fern which are all flourishing.
I just added some cabomba ( i hate how it plugs up the filter but its soooo perdy!) and some red plants that i have no clue what they are and i cant identify them. A couple other unidentified green plants.

The plants do well. I think its cus i leave the light on so much. i think i will get a plant-glo bulb to speed thier growth up a bit. maybe.

[odessa]

It is possible to put 48 inch shoplights over a standard 55 gal. tank. I had two of them each of wich housed two tubes for a total of 160 watts . I paid I think around ten bucks apiece forthem at home depot.

[DIYMatt]

I agree with Odessa. Two shoplights work great on a 55. Just make sure you get ones that are narrow enough to fit two on top of the tank. If you do go that way make sure you get the GE daylight tubes, they work well IME. The cheesy CO2 unit you bought does the same thing as the DIY pop bottle method which can be set up for like $5. Search for DIY CO2 on these boards for more info and recipes.

SO, the question is can you return your "plant growing bulbs" and cheesy CO2 unit? If so, you could set up the shoplights, CO2 and still have money left over. Assuming your prices are similar to what we have here. Then you would have a 3 wpg tank with CO2 and be able to grow almost anything if you wanted to.