How to make a good light to grow dwarf hair grass and such?

I havn't tried them myself yet but I have heard alot of people using kits from: http://www.ahsupply.com/index.html. Perhaps you can find something there to suit your needs. It seems that you can take the guts out of your stock light fixture and install their reflector, balast, and such.

Hope it helps.

Jeff
 
Get a 55 watt bright kit from AH supply. I just barely retrofitted a 24" standard flourescent fixture with one. I added some DIY moonlights also. I previously had two 15 watt bulbs and there is no comparison. You should check out their site. They are great to work with. Just a word of warning though, you will probably have to start dosing ferts and CO2 so the light is not wasted on algae. I just started up my DIY CO2 today so I'm hoping the plants will control the algae.
 
This is what works for me. I went to a garden center and purchased a 30" planter box. I painted it with several coats of a high gloss white spray paint. Then I installed 5 sockets with 5 -18W compact flor lamps 6500K. This is in my fishroom not my living room. Hope this helps. It is much less expensive then AH Supply, BUT I can not compare them as I don't have access to them to test. I hear that they are very good.
 
thesixis said:
This is what works for me. I went to a garden center and purchased a 30" planter box. I painted it with several coats of a high gloss white spray paint.
Click to expand...

Flat white is better, cant remember exactly why right now though. Im sure somebody will chime in.
 
you need atleast 3wpg to grow dwarf hairgrass well and have it carpet and not grow just straight up, plus the addition of CO2 andferts may be necessary. I have 3wpg and pressurized co2 and am having a little bit of trouble having it carpet in my tank, it seems to be a very slow grower. You will need about 90 watts.
 
50 Watts or there abouts is good for a 29 Gallon.
I think 2 x 24 W T5's off set to provide decent spread would be ideal for a 30" long 29 Gallon.

You do NOT need more than 2 W/gal to grow any species, Tonia, L pantanal, P stellata, any harder plants etc and certainly no foreground plant.

More light means more issues, more work and waste.

I have hair grass and have grown it for many years, it's a fairly low light plant.
CO2?

Now there's the larger issue............

As far as proof of low light, here's a dwarf hair grass tank with 1.5 w/gal, 108 w over a 70 gal tank:

If it cannot be done easily, then how is this tank possible with 1/2 the suggested light?
resized70galADAwith1.5wgal.jpg


Here's an old 75 Gal with the same:

Garinplantedtank1.jpg


Less light= less CO2 demand, less nutrient demand, thus everything is easier to manage. Adding good CO2 to lower light tanks is really much easier, but many thing because they have CO2, that they should.......somehow be required to add lots of light.

No, you gain many benefits and get every last little bit of growth and virtually no algae using higher CO2+ low light. Rates of growth are a bit slower, but still nice and pretty. Algae is limited by light also, so any issues there are much less intense. CO2 stability is also much easier, placing less stress on fish.

Here's some HC with the exact same light intensity as the tank's above:

redone70micromollight.jpg
 
Plantbrain- Can you recommend a simple but effective CO2 setup? This will be my first shot at a CO2 planted tank. I am interested in carpeted effect that you've shown in your pics.
 
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