Do I need to upgrade my lighting?

You will probably need new bulbs. The 50/50 light bulb is meant for saltwater and not for plants. You will need a bulb that is 5000-6700K. These bulbs are in the light spectrum for plants.

You have 2 WPG (Watts Per Gallon), which is about medium lighting for your tank. Out of the plants that I know, the sword and the baby tears do much better with 3+WPG(high lighting). I also read that lights on 10 gallon tanks need even more lighting than other tanks. Maybe somebody else has better knowledge about that.

If you go to 2.5 WPG or above, you have to consider CO2 and ferts. That helps the plants outcompete algae for nutrients and grow beautifully. For a 10 gallon tank, a DIY CO2 setup is very cheap and easy.

Those 50/50 cut the light you need in half. i would replace them with something that says its for freshwater plants. The ideal Kelvin rating would be around 6500. I've heard you can get the cheap screw in ones at walmart, etc. for 4-5 bucks each. With the 50/50 you are really working with 10 watts of light and the Kelvin is 10,000. Plants can grow in 10,000K but everyone says 6500 (or around that) is best.

I think you can get by with 20 watts over your 10 gal. Some of your new plants may struggle a bit for color but they will probably grow at that wattage.
Are the lights in question tubes or bulbs. In other words, do they look like long fluorescent tubes or do they screw into sockets like light bulbs?
Your plants would do better under lights with a Kelvin rating anywhere between 5000K and 10,000K with 6700K being the most pleasing to the human eye, in the opinion of most humans I've spoken with. If they were mine I'd replace them.
The plants will grow regardless of what your ratings are within that frame.
You've got a lot of plants coming for the little space a 10 gal. tank affords you. Just the Melon Sword will one day use most of the tank's area.
As I said, I would replace them, but would stay within the 20 - 35 watt range initially while you learn how to balance your tank with plants in it. It will need light fertilization and you could dose it with Seachem's Excel for a carbon source as an alternative to CO2.

Good luck with it.

Len

When you buy your bulbs, keep in mind that below 6000K will yield a green/yellow caste to the tank and as you get above 6500K the caste will change to a more green/blue. I have discovered that after years of using and liking the relatively neutral 6700K, that I kind of like the more blue caste of 9350K which I use in two of my tanks.
It's all in the eye of the beholder......the plants don't give a rip, one way or the other.

Len

Yeah, I am trying a mixture of 9325K and 5500K on my large tank. I saw somewhere on here it makes a good contrast. i like the redness of the 9325. I know coralife makes the red tinted screw in compact flourescent. they are 20 each i think. real nice color. ive seen them all over for $10.

kelvins have nothing to do with plant growth. you want full spectrum bulbs with wavelength peaks designed for plants (400-500nm peak and 600-700nm peaks). actinic is just a 400-500nm peak which doesn't cover all the different types of chlorophyll.


some 6700K bulbs peak like actinics (hagen's flora-glo), so going off of kelvin ratings for deciding on bulbs isn't a good idea.

a really nice kelvin mix is 6700K/10000K and 6500K/18000K.

my lowtech tank is 1 x 40w (48") hagen aquaglo (18000K, looks kinda like the 9325K) which is pretty far from white/green light and it's doing great because the bulb has peaks like this ideal graph.