I know [B]nothing[/B] about plants - but want to learn

Ammonia and plants

Hmm, with so many plants you shouldn't be seeing much ammonia if the plants are growing.

And, if you moved over the gravel and filters from the old tank, you also shouldn't see much ammonia.


Does your water have chlorine or chloramine? And what water conditioner do you use?


For light, a 20 long, it's very shallow and the same footprint as a 29... You might look into the double bulb fixtures, see DrFosterSmith.com for double and triple bulb fixtures, but they will be a bit short, 24" lights n a 30" strip, I don't know if they offset the lights for better coverage, if they do that would be great.

Another choice is to get two 13 watt retrofit kits from AHSupply .com and position them correctly inside the existing strip light. You'd have to gut the lights that are in there, anyone handy with a drill and wirestrippers? It is pretty easy if so. Be sure to call them if you have questions about how it is done, they are really nice people.

Do you have a plastic hood or glass top? With a glass top you can simply add a second strip light. A 24" flourescent is 20 watts, so you'd get to 2watts per gallon right there.

With a 20 gallon, I'd get a Hagen CO2 unit, PetSolutions has them cheap I think. $19 to $22 online, that is the Plant Grow System.

The thing is, the regular flourescent bulbs are 24" long, the next size is 36", your tank is 30". So, either you go to 2 x 20 watt lights to get 2 wpg, or you go for a stronger compact flourescent light. I looked around and only found 55 and 65 watt lights in 30" length, way too much for a shallow 20 long. This tank needs to be relaxing, not an algae breeding disaster requiring work all the time. I'm assuming that your tank does not use screw-in bulbs, but the long flourescent bulbs.

In this case, you want to go with a bought light fixture... the double tube from any online source will give you 2 watts per gallon, I am very fond of the All-glass bulb that they send in those. A 20L is so shallow I don't think you need anything more.

The 24" bulb in a 30" tank may give you shadows at the edges unless they have stagered the lights, you can call DrFosterSmith and ask, they can find out for you. If they are both centered, then you will have to be aware that tall plants around the edges will lead toward the light. I'd suggest staying away from stem plants and keeping mostly rosette type plants and dwarf plants.

The sword plant is typically amazon sword, and will outgrow your tank fast, as will the onion. The wisteria and anachris are fast growing stem plants, also likely to overgrow the tank. Good choices for a 58+ gallon tank, care to upgrade now before it goes too far?

If the store has anything like anubias nana, that might grow in your tank under the current lighting. Java moss and java fern would attach to the driftwood with the current lighting also. Cryptocorynes will be happy also.

Maybe you can return the plants and order from an online store or other hobbiest who is selling these plants to get what you need for this lighting you have.

Personally, that'd be my choice, keep the lights you have, get low light plants and add CO2, maybe. With low light it will make them much prettier but you wont' have so much work to do in maintaining them. I'd add the CO2 before I'd change the lights.

Ask around, many hobbiests, myself included, sell plants from their tanks. I don't have anubias nana for sale, but someone might. I do have some other things that would do well for you, and it may be that someone has everything you want in one place.