Need help on lighting plant tank

G

goldtooth

Registered Member
Mar 21, 2006
2
0
0
ok, so I have a 20H gallon tank and a 5 and a half gallon tank.
The 20H is community tank.
The 5.5 will be the all plant tank soon.
As for lighting, I have the glass top with a 18" standard flourecent bulb in the 20H. For the 5.5, I have a plexiglass cover with standard fluorcent bulb. I bought a Brazilian Sword, so far, and I want to grow those "grass" looking plants, and most likely a few others that will grow in the 5.5, until I have enough to start distributing to the 20H. I went to the fish store and bought what they recommended me, a Power-Glo 18000K(says here its a T-8(not sure what that means), 15watt). But I think something is up, because I went to a different fish store and they recommended me a Flora-Glo which is a mere 2800K.
My question is, which one?? Or maybe something somewhere in-between.
Which light will give me the best plant growth with not to the extreme-plant-growth??
Thank you
-Antoni
 
I'd recommend gating something between 5000K-10000K, they are most like day light. 18000 is high, that's what you'd use on a reef tank.
 
At last check wal-mart was carrying 2 packs of 6500k t8 bulbs. I'm thinking you may need to upgrade your lighting a bit if you have just the one t8 bulb over your 20g.
 
goldtooth said:
ok, so I have a 20H gallon tank and a 5 and a half gallon tank.
The 20H is community tank.
The 5.5 will be the all plant tank soon.
As for lighting, I have the glass top with a 18" standard flourecent bulb in the 20H. For the 5.5, I have a plexiglass cover with standard fluorcent bulb. I bought a Brazilian Sword, so far, and I want to grow those "grass" looking plants, and most likely a few others that will grow in the 5.5, until I have enough to start distributing to the 20H. I went to the fish store and bought what they recommended me, a Power-Glo 18000K(says here its a T-8(not sure what that means), 15watt). But I think something is up, because I went to a different fish store and they recommended me a Flora-Glo which is a mere 2800K.
My question is, which one?? Or maybe something somewhere in-between.
Which light will give me the best plant growth with not to the extreme-plant-growth??
Thank you
-Antoni
Click to expand...

i am doing the same thing except for a 50 gallon. From my research, carpet plants such as the dwarf hairgrass all need at least 2-3wpg. You will need compact flousant for sure on the 20H. Checkout th coralife freshwater aqualight hoods. Single light version will give you close to 1.9wpg and double
light will be in the 3+wpg range. Those normal flousant -glo lights wont cut it for the 20H. Only carpet that may be ok under low light is java moss, but those are messy...

For the temperature K, neither 2800k nor 18000k is a good choice, they are both too extreme. You want soemthing in the 6700k range. And becareful when buying new light stripes, there are many that's made for saltwater tanks only which uses actinic light etc that's not good for freshwater plants.

anyway checkout the coralife series, good buy.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom