lighting OK or needing more?

klfvilla

klfvilla

AC Members
Mar 15, 2007
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Southern Ontario, Canada
This morning I tranferred everything from my 5g into a 10g. Plants are Java Fern, Hortwort and some unknown Sword plant which is surviving quite nicely for now but doesn't matter if I ultimately lose it. The lighting in the 5g had been recently ugraded from 9w flourescent to 13. The lighting that came in the 10g is a 19w 20" flourescent. Will this be adequate or do I need to upgrade?
 
That seems ok for the plants you listed. I have 20 watts over my 10 gallon and everything is doing fine.
 
WeeNe858 said:
the plants you listed are low light plants so youll be ok.. you are at 1.9 watts per gallon and low light plants can fare well in those ranges... but if you plan on getting more plants and at a "higher quality" then youll neet at least 2-4 watts per gallon, but at that point youll need co2
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just cuz you hit 2wpg doesnt mean you have to have co2. i have a 20gal tank with a 65w bulb over it. no co2 no ferts no algae.

the whole wpg is tossed out in smaller tanks.

http://www.rexgrigg.com/mlt.html

Take a one gallon tank. Put a 4 watt bulb on it. You now have a 4 watt per gallon tank. But wait! It seems that nothing will survive in your "high" light micro tank. Why is that? Well plants need a minimum threshold of light to survive and grow. And this minimum is not expressed in the watt per gallon rule.
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I have been looking at this new tank a lot today. Comparing it to how my 5g with 13w lighting looked, this tank does not look that well lit I think and it seems to cast a purplish hue to the tank. What if anything would give a brighter, whiter light? I haven't taken the long light fixture out to see if anything is written on it but the back of the light hood says 20" 19w flourescent.
 
I am setting updating my 10G to heavily planted and I agree the 19W is not enough.

I am trying to do it on the cheap for now, so I picked up a Perfecto incandescent hood and threw two 15w daylight screw-in fluorescents I had. Brighter, but not bright enough, too much wasted light.

I am going to dis-assemble and paint the inside white then reassemble, that will help the stray light that misses the reflectors get reflect back.

I am also searching for 20W bulbs that will fit with the right spectrum. These seem to be the best: FE-IIS-20W-64K or FE-IIS-20W-50K. They are 2.05 inches in the diameter so they will fit in the hood and they are about an inch longer the the 15W bulbs I am using so will spread the light more.

The other option is to add one more screw base on each end and use 4 bulbs. Then I have a lot of control of light.

Of course, eventually I will go with a real setup, but this is fun in the short-term.
 
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I have seen 23W screwing CF lights at walmart that are marked 6500K. They came 2 in a pack for <$10.

Also, could your lighting issue be an illusion due to the type of background on the 2 tanks. Maybe the 5 appears brighter because of that. Just thinking here.
 
Thanks for the replies. The light on the 10g is a 'prong' style long bar, not a screw in. It looks a bit better today. I had just set everything up yesterday morning so there were some issues with cloudiness that have now settled. I haven't bought a new background yet and I think it would be best for me to go with something that is a lighter colour, if possible. That might help a little.
 
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