I have a 20 long that's lighty planted at the moment but will eventually be heavily planted. It currently houses shrimp, snails and a few cories. I'm still learning about proper lighting and was wondering what would be the best kind of bulb to go with. I was also trying to avoid spending $20 or for the bulb so if there is a cheap alternative that would be great too. I'm also trying to promote algae growth so all those inverts will have something nice to snack on.
Plant lighting
- Thread starter GOBLOX001001
- Start date
what type of hood do you have (PC, T5, CF,ect) once we know the type of build you use then we can better sugest stuff but usally you want a light in the 6,500K to 10,000 K range for plants.
I'm not 100% sure because I got it secondhand from my lfs but it's flourescent. I'm a newbie to all this lighting stuff so I don't really know what t5 lighting is. I just know that it's some kind of flourescent tube.
florescent tubes come in different sizes you probably have a T8 set up, is it one of the plastic black hood? if so i would look for a day light bulb for it shouldn't be that expensive.
my only concern with t8 is that you will be limited to low light plants most of the time.
my only concern with t8 is that you will be limited to low light plants most of the time.
its a plastic hood. i'll go grab a day bulb. how much would a t5 setup cost? i'll probably upgrade whenever i have the spare money. also what wattage would i want and do i need to get this bulb my lfs or can i go to loews or something of that nature?
well it depends what quality of lighting you want most light aren't below $50, i got a t5 set up for about $68 shipped for my 20 high (24in) from fishneedit. there not the best light but thay are a good bang for you buck place. the wattage the question is do you want to do low light (i recommend under 2 wpg, watts per gallon) or high light (more then 2 wpg) with high light though you will need CO2 because you will get insane algae.
for bulbs for your current hood you could try a hard ware store not sure if thay would have the right length (try it anyway), but most likely you're LFS has the bulb too. ether way bring the bulb with you and make sure the bulb your getting is the the 6,500K to 10,000K range. you can get away with using the curent hood for a long time actually and i did this with pretty good sucsess when i had my first planted tank.
another option is retrofitting the hood you have to use spiral florescent bulbs (just the regular power saving bulbs). i know i've done this on smaller tanks and it has worked out pretty well. this is one example of what i'm talking about.
for bulbs for your current hood you could try a hard ware store not sure if thay would have the right length (try it anyway), but most likely you're LFS has the bulb too. ether way bring the bulb with you and make sure the bulb your getting is the the 6,500K to 10,000K range. you can get away with using the curent hood for a long time actually and i did this with pretty good sucsess when i had my first planted tank.
another option is retrofitting the hood you have to use spiral florescent bulbs (just the regular power saving bulbs). i know i've done this on smaller tanks and it has worked out pretty well. this is one example of what i'm talking about.