14 Watt Light on 5.5 Gallon Tank.

[Zbbal]

So me and this guy traded tanks today. He had a 5.5 gallon and I had a 20 gallon hex. (He paid me the difference, by the way.) When me and him got down to the lighting, we realized we had the same fixture. Mine had a little more damage, so I told him I'd keep mine. It wasn't until I put the light on the 5.5 gallon a minute ago, that I realized just how bright 14 watts is on such a small tank. I'm used to barely getting to 1.5 wpg on my tanks. And when this light was on the 20 gallon hex...well, it was a very dark tank.

So here's my question. What is this amount of lighting considered? If I'm right, that's roughly 2.5 watts per gallon. That's a hell of a lot more wpg than I'm used to. I know that the higher the watts, the more there is a need for Co2 and fertilizers. I used to have a 10 gallon planted with Java Fern, fertilized with Seachem Flourish Tabs, putting out 1.5 wpg. But with a whole extra 1 wpg, I'm not sure about what I should be using. What kind of plants? Can I still use the Flourish Tabs? Do I need Co2?

I was originally planning on some floaters, but with that much lighting and the plants being so close to the source, I think I would have an explosion of floating plants. I'm fairly familiar with Java Fern, and was able to keep it going in my 10 gallon.

Any help is welcome.

 

[Zbbal]

Also, do plants prefer a certain color lighting? The 14 watt is a pink/blueish color. I also have a 15 watt light that is very white. It doesn't really have a certain hue to it.

 

[Zbbal]

No one?

 

[Ozymandias]

well smaller tank are confusing with lighting i would say you probably don't need CO2 and just see how the tank reacts to algae and what problems you have with it. i would say for plants most medium to low light plants and even some high light ones though thay might need CO2.

if you can figure out the Kelvin rating on the light that might help. most people use 6500K (kelvin) to 10,000K for plants.

 

[schaadrak]

The WPG rule doesn't really apply to smaller tanks. The amount of lumens per watt declines on the lower wattage fluorescent lighting. Plus with the amount of light lost to re-strike, reflection, and spill-over, 14W is not going to push you into using CO2. Even if it did, floaters get their CO2 from the air and will block the extra light from the water below, so you still would have been fine.

Your pinkish/bluish light will work fine, and is probably a plant-grow spectrum bulb. If you're looking to replace the bulb, don't bother with the expensive plant bulbs, just by the cheapie daylight spectrum bulbs. They'll have enough usable light without casting a strange color on everything.

 

[Dr. Awkward]

I agree that you should start without using CO2, plant what you like, then decide if the set up is going to work for you. You can always change things up. I have a 5 gallon tank with 23 watts over it, no CO2 and no ferts and I get good growth with no algae. Every tank kinda takes on a life of its own so I usually choose to react to problems when they occur instead of planning ahead for them.

I'm not sure what kind of hood you have but if you have plenty of air circulation at the top of your tank you can still grow floaters. Some floaters look completely different under higher light. In my 5 gallon red root floaters and azolla both turn a nice shade of pink/green that I don't ever see in my lower light tanks. They don't really grow any faster though so I don't think you need to worry about a plant explosion.

 

[Zbbal]

The WPG rule doesn't really apply to smaller tanks. The amount of lumens per watt declines on the lower wattage fluorescent lighting. Plus with the amount of light lost to re-strike, reflection, and spill-over, 14W is not going to push you into using CO2. Even if it did, floaters get their CO2 from the air and will block the extra light from the water below, so you still would have been fine.

Your pinkish/bluish light will work fine, and is probably a plant-grow spectrum bulb. If you're looking to replace the bulb, don't bother with the expensive plant bulbs, just by the cheapie daylight spectrum bulbs. They'll have enough usable light without casting a strange color on everything.

Okay then. I really like the hue from the light I have.

Someone warned me about floaters and how "once you have them, you can never really get rid of them." So I assume they produce a lot? I really only wanted a few.

My next question is, what would you plant other than Java Fern? There are a lot of low to medium light plants, so a specific name would lovely.

 

[DoctaQ]

its def not too much light, i have 26w on my 5.5

that being said, you can grow a bunch of stuff, the stock bulb and 5.5 gal is the only combo that i know of that has enough light for many common plants

i grew hairgrass dwarf tiger lotus, dwarf sag
you can grow just about anything thats not extremely high light

 

[Taysius]

As far as floaters go, just stay away from duckweed and you should be ok and not get too over run.