Lighting Advice (16gal High)

[brookelyn]

I currently own a 16 gallon (high) aquariuim with an Eclipse (twin bulb) hood. Since each bulb only throws out around 15 watts each -- my question is this, is it possible to get higher wattage flouresant bulbs (or would something like Flora-Glo work?) that would still be safe to use with the Eclipse hood?

I ask because I notice that both my ludwigia/primrose (higher light plant, I know), and my water wisteria are not really doing as well as I would like.

If uping the bulb wattage isn't an option; what plants would everyone recommend (see my tank specs for a current list of plants I have)?

[Mako]

At ~2watts per gallon, you could keep a decent variety. Cryptocoryne wendtii (and it's thousands of variants) would do fine, most of your java stuff (moss and fern) will do fine, any anubias specie, and perhaps some of the broader-leaved sword plants (echinodorous sp). Consider adding a pop-bottle yeast CO2 reactor. At 2w per gallon, a little CO2 could spruce things up.

Be sure you're bulbs are under a year old. If they're 6 mos or more, I'd replace them. Something in the 5000K to 6500K spectrum will do you quite well (I prefer 6500K). Shouldn't be hard to find 6500K 15 watt bulbs.

[Blinky]

I agree with everything Matak just said, especially about the addition of CO2 - I recently read something where a plant guru (I believe it was Tom Barr) mentioned that it's a good idea to try adding CO2 before adding more light; the added CO2 allows plants to use the available light more effectively :)

If you're hooked on certain plants and decide you want to go high light, one option is to get a retrofit kit for your hood from www.ahsupply.com - you'd gut your hood, replace everything with the the kit, and would be able to use compact fluorescent bulbs which give off two to three times as much light per watt.

[brookelyn]

Thanks for the info!

I just purchased a CO2 kit for my aqurium, and it is currently doing its thing (I am suppose to see bubbles in a few hours - or so they say). Hopefully, the addition of CO2 will give my plants a little boost. If that doesn't do the trick, I might loook at that light retrofit kit.