Lighting?

[aquafan1885]

I recently reset up my 10 gallon tank, or, at least, started setting it up then decided I wasn't happy with it. I bought a few plants and such to put in it, but wasn't too happy...didn't get too far, I'm still at a stage where I can take it down and put it back together without too much effort. My question is this...I want to put some plants in that require high amounts of lighting...however, I'm almost positive the one fluorescent light strip I have on it now is not enough to supply lighting to some of the more demanding plants. What would be the simplest and most COST EFFICIENT way of correcting this problem?

[TKOS]

AH supply (do a google search) sells retrofit kits for tanks at a resonable price. Otherwise you could make you own new hood. My dad just put together one from a shop light and some spare wood. Not too tricky.

You should aim for a minimum of 2 watts per gallon and even high is better. At a certain point (when you start getting above 3 wpg) you might want to start thinking about the addition of CO2.

The single strip you have now is 15 watts or 1.5 watts per gallon. That will be fine for plants like Crypts and Java Fern but most other really start to need 2 wpg or more.

[DIYMatt]

I do well with two "Daylight" screw-in compact flourscents form Home Depot over a ten gallon. You won't get as dense growth as you would with a retrofit for AHsupply, but it works and is easy if you have a double incandescent strip light. If you have an LFS that has used stuff, you should be able to pick one up for a couple bucks. Otherwise you can take the flourescent fixture out of the strip light you have and retro fit a double ended incandescent socket into it. PM me if you want more info on that. The whole thing would cost $20-25.

[aquafan1885]

Actually, I'd prefer to stay as FAR away from incandescents as possible...although, I do already have an incandescent hood in addition to this fluorescent...in case I do have to switch to using it. This aquarium is actually somewhat of a learning experience for me...I work at a local aquarium store, so getting my hands on some of the supplies I need isn't really too much of a problem. But this is my first live plant aquarium, so I decided to take this on to familiarize myself with more of the aspects of the aquarium hobby. I can probably afford to order the AH double fluorescent kit...but would it really be worth it? The only problem I might have is they suggest not using it with a typical plastic hood...which is what I have...I got the single fluorescent strip and hood together...they're by...Natures View, I believe is the name of the company. If need by, I can get the double-glass strip hood from the store where I work for about $3. Also, I was wondering if anyone could give me some suggestions on plants that would do well in a tank that will have mostly tetras...a few other fish, but mostly focusing on tetras...something that will do well in relatively soft water and a ph of about 6.5 to 7.0. Any suggestions?

[Leopardess]

the Ah lights are worth it. YOu can retrofit them right into your current hood and can even keep it on the cheap plastic/black plastic cover that comes with most tanks. I've got the 36w kit from ah and a glass cover. WOrks great.

Be aware that with high light you will need to inject CO2 into the tank and fertilizers will be necessary.

Plants that look amazing with any fish , particularly neons and glowlights, are glossostigma and riccia. Wisteria (hygrophila difformis) and hydrocotyle leucocephela also look very nice. Micro sword and dwarf hairgrass (parvalus) would also make an attractive addition. To grow the glosso horizontally you should plan on 3+wpg.

[aquafan1885]

Thanks to one of my coworkers...I may have a solution to my problem...I'm going to keep the current 15 watt fluorescent, however, since I've also invested in a glass cover, I can now place two strips on the tank...so, I will be placing the incandescent hood on as well, but, instead of using incandescent bulbs, I will be using some fluorescent compacts that the store I work at sells. Oh, and Leopardess, I believe it was one of your posts that I read in which you suggested using Schultz's Aquatic Soil...I went and bought some and used it as part of my substrate ( I used a combination of SAS, ebony natural gravel, and some smaller black gravel ) I wasn't too fond of using just the SAS as a substrate, so I mixed the ebony in with that, and it works wonderfully...the SAS provides all the nutrients my plants could ever need, except I do add some supplements every now and then, and the ebony gravel provides a little extra weight to keep the plants from floating around. I have a CO2 injector ordered at the moment. What fertilizer would you suggest, if any? I can get just about any of them...if the store doesn't have it in stock, we can always order it...in fact, since using the SAS, I've convinced our store owner to add the SAS as one of our regular stock items now! But, anyway, what fertilizer would you suggest? I'm also still looking for the plants...it seems those plants aren't something our owner normally orders, so I'll have to order those from somewhere else...any ideas of online stores where I can find such plants? At the moment, the tank is EXTREMELY bare...all I've gotten so far are 2 julii cory cats, 2 neons (I had 6, but lost about 4 in 2 days time...narrowed the cause down to ph stress), and the only plants I have are some anubias nana...no driftwood, nothing...just bare essentials at the moment. I'd really appreciate the feedback.

[Richer]

There's not much you can do with a 10 gallon tank in terms of stock. The only thing I can suggest with your current stock is perhaps adding one more cory, and replacing the neons that you lost.
As for the plants, this depends on a few things. Has your tank cycled yet? If not, I would look around for fast growing plants, and use those in your tank for now. After a couple of months, you can start removing some of those plants, return them to your fish store for store credit and purchase other plants.
Since your tank is only 10 gallons, I would stick to plants that do not grow too tall. Doing so will give you more room for error in terms of trimming your plants. You could go with taller growing plants as well, but you may find that with high lighting, co2 injection and nutrient dosing that these plants will quickly out grow your tank in a matter of days. Which will result in more trimmings. This may, or may not appeal to you.

HTH
-Richer