Light requirements for 10 gal tank

M

MJMac

AC Members
Jan 29, 2018
15
0
1
64
Hello,

I am trying to understand light requirements for my 10 gal tank. I currently have a couple of anubius, several wentiis, a java fern and several stocks of water westeria. My tank houses a very young female betta and the water parameters are all good; ammonia 0, nitrites 0 and nitrates </= 10. Everything seems to be okay except the bottom parts of my westeria plants are dying off while roots are forming above the dead areas.

I currently have a Fluval nano light. The specs on the box say 9000K & 290LM. Should this be enough, or do I need more/different lighting? Could I just add another Nano?

Here is a picture of what I am seeing. Maybe since the roots are growing there is no need for alarm. Thank you for any advice!IMG_20180130_123734.jpg
 
How long have the plants been in this tank with the fluval lighting?
 
Wentiis have been in for a year+, same with the Anubis; the Java fern and the wisteria have only been in for about 3 weeks
 
when you planted the wisteria, were there established roots that went under the substrate? Or was there more of just the end of the stem?

What do you have for plant nutrition within the substrate?

Personally I've only had luck growing wisteria floating in the aquarium, not trying to plant it. especially not if there wasn't a large amount of established roots in there.
 
Hello Dougall,

Yes, the wisteria had roots that I planted in the substrate. It came in one of those planters with moss rock that I removed the plants from and separated. I am currently not feeding the plants because I wanted my little baby betta to get used to the tank before I started adding fertilizer. Maybe I don't need to worry about that, but I thought I would err on the side of precaution (?). I have used Seachem Flourish root tabs in the past.

Thoughts?
 
wisteria will grow fine floating.. like I said I haven't had any luck trying to plant it.. and ultimately it grew too fast for my tastes anyways.

root tabs would help, as without nutrients, there's nothing to feet the roots... and they will die.

If plants don't get enough food, they will die too, which isn't going to do much good for the betta, personally I'd stick with something slower growing than wisteria, to let things go slowly.. if you let that stem rot, and just pull it out, the plant will likely stay healthy with roots in the water column.

I think if you stick towards the lower tech side of things, your light will be fine.
 
My experience with wisteria is the same. Some roots would attach themselves to the substrate, but the majority would just spread out in the water column. With enough light, a form of CO2 and some water column ferts, you'll have to thin it out regularly. Below is a pic of my first 55g setup with plants. Most of what you see is wisteria, with some water sprite that also grows well floating.
gOljnHd.jpg
 
wow...that is really cool...I don't have a c02 source. I am REALLY a novice, learning just enough to keep one little betta happy and healthy. We are selling our house and my plan when we move is to upgrade her home to a 20 gal tank and get a little more educated on light/c02 to enable a better environment for plants...eeehhh, she says with a shiver...

For now, I am happy just keeping up with water changes and trying to keep some low tech plants alive for my little gal. She investigates everything and really enjoys the plants.

What fertilizer would you recommend for the water column?

Thanks for your help!
 
I've never run real CO2 either. I always used API or Seachem's bottled "liquid CO2" or used my own glutaral product. As far as ferts, again I used various API or Seachem liquid products.

The substrate in that above tank pic was marble chips from Lowes. It's nor real marble, just small chunky white rocks. The whole bag was around $3 IIRC. Huge spender I am..

Lighting was an Odyssea twin tube T5HO fluorescent, 110 watts total. I think being up against that window was a big factor in the growth as well.
 
Thanks again...I will get some c02 & ferts. We live in Texas and one county away from one of the largest granite deposits in Texas, so for my next tank, I will gather up some of this. I am all for spending minimum amounts of $, especially when so much can be had for free!

Have a great night!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom