36 bow front stocking

[vancetish]

so i have a 36 gallon bow front w/ the included hood and a filstar xp3. I want some low light plants as the hood only excepts one florescent bulb. right now theres only 2 large pieces of drift wood and a few fake plants and a honey gourami with a nasty disposition. the gourami is gonna be goven to a lfs.

i plan on getting a clown loach. and possibly 2 blue rams.
or
a clown loach w. a few angels.
or clown loach w. school of rosey barbs.

i just got rid of my saltwater reef tank and now want an easy maintenence tank
any fish suggestions i may have overlooked.

 

[Harlock]

so i have a 36 gallon bow front w/ the included hood and a filstar xp3. I want some low light plants as the hood only excepts one florescent bulb. right now theres only 2 large pieces of drift wood and a few fake plants and a honey gourami with a nasty disposition. the gourami is gonna be goven to a lfs.

i plan on getting a clown loach. and possibly 2 blue rams.
or
a clown loach w. a few angels.
or clown loach w. school of rosey barbs.

i just got rid of my saltwater reef tank and now want an easy maintenence tank
any fish suggestions i may have overlooked.

Clown loaches prefer schools and will outgrow a 36 gallon tank. You could hit two of the fish on your list together, but I would limit the numbers. A few Angels may be too many if you define a few as more than two. Really, even two is sort of pushing it, but if you were able to buy a fwe when they were smaller, let them pair off, and then return whoever didn't make the grade to the LFS, then a mated pair may be okay. Rosey barbs should be fine with the angels. Also it can sometimes be ahrd to grow plants under certain conditions. Do you happen to know what wattage the light is?

 

[vancetish]

the hood uses a 24" - 20 watt fl bulb. i was going to replace the bulb with one suitable for a few amazon sword plants. is that ok or a bad idea

thinking of just getting 2 rams. and 2 small bottom feeders, maybe coridoras.

 

[Harlock]

the hood uses a 24" - 20 watt fl bulb. i was going to replace the bulb with one suitable for a few amazon sword plants. is that ok or a bad idea

thinking of just getting 2 rams. and 2 small bottom feeders, maybe coridoras.

Replacing flourescents isn't the same as with incandescent. If you pop in a higher wattage bulb it is still powered by 20 watt ballasts. So, it may not work, or if it does, it usually provides only a dim light. You would need to upgrade your end caps and ballasts or purchase a new strip altogether. I would suggest a 65 watt power compct bulb in that setup. I use this one from Big Al's. Works great and my plants do well. With this light swords would be okay.

 

[vancetish]

cool thanks,


only thing is. would this fit on the hood opening for a light?
the width of the hood you suggested may be to wide

 

[Harlock]

It may or may not. Depends. Does the glass strip of your hood have a lip on it? Mine does, and while the light is wider than the opening, the lightbulb is narrow and sits over the glass, so all of the light and reflector sit over the glass section of my hood. The back is just space, so it rests easily on the lip around the glass section.

 

[Neo Sithlord]

Lookat my tag for what I have in mine. I have a Geneva Series tank. As you can tell I prefer small tropicals. If it's the same hood that I have with the glass flip up cover it should be easy enough to replace the balast with anouther better suited for plants. I don't use the one that came with the tank, I recycled the light from my old 29 gallon but the ammount of light between the two is nominal.
-Neo Sithlord