lighting for a planted 29 gal.

[eeyipes]

You wouldn't need a twin tube top unless you think you'd want to add a second light strip later, and if that's the case you might just want to get the 65w light. I have the 30-60 Aquatech HOB and it works just fine.

Here's my tank, all the plants are 1-4 weeks in the tank. The najas in the corner is especially starting to take off. The ambulia is a week old and sprouting new buds. The aponogetons are bulbs from Walmart, I don't do much vaccuming, a handful of trumpet snails clean up for me.

 

[irishspy]

I use an HOB on my 10g tank: an AC20. It works just fine. I think either an AC50 HOB or an XP1 canister filter would be fine for your 29.

 

[debrab1954]

Ok, i think i will go with the aqua clear and maybe update to a canister later. How many watts of light will the T5 light strip give me, and when i start putting in plants should i start with alot right off? I hope i am not asking too many questions, but i want to make sure i do everything right from the beginning.

 

[Riiz]

Nothing wrong with that. If you go with T5, go with a dual HO T5 setup, for 24x2 watts.

 

[phanmc]

Going 2x24w T5HO is about as high as you want to go without CO2 injection.

If you're not injecting CO2 then the filter type doesn't matter. Canister filters are great for CO2 injected tanks because you can control the amount of surface agitation by directing the outflow down, less surface agitation means less CO2 gas off. Without CO2 injection, you want the surface agitation so there is more gas exchange into the water.

Canister filters are also great low noise solutions. If a noisy filter may be an issue for you then canisters are definitely better.

Plant heavily from the start, it will help fight algae. Never had a problem with many types of algae when the tank was heavily planted. When I set up a tank, I plant everywhere I expect the plants to grow rather than wait for them to fill in themselves. The exception is the foreground lawn plants but then I still try to not have too wide a gap between plant nodes.

 

[debrab1954]

Where would i buy the T5 set up, is it a light strip like the coral life? Thanks everyone for the help.

 

[rich311k]

Yes it is a light strip. All the normal online vendors sell them. Big Als, the Doctors, Petsmart, and others.