lighting upgrade: watts/gal question (and other various questions)

How many watts/gallon for a 20H?

  • 3.6

    Votes: 17 50.0%

  • 4.55

    Votes: 8 23.5%

  • 5.5

    Votes: 4 11.8%

  • other (post response with #'s)

    Votes: 5 14.7%
  • Total voters
    34
I just started with live plants. I was also told that the anacharis would do ok in the low light because I only had a 40 watt bulb. After a few days, they started to get brown. I got more lights the other day and now I am up to 120. It made a huge difference.

As for the CO2, I made a DiY injector, and it is very good. I just took a 2 liter bottle, filled it half way with warm water, put 4 tablespoons of sugar in and 1 teaspoon of yeast. Then, I drilled a hold in the cap, placed an air tube through it, sealed it with hot glue, then screwed it on the bottle tightly. It works very well.
 
If you plan on excel, you'll need 2x20 w reg FL lights.
anything more, and you'll need gas CO2.

Yes, you can get away with more etc but it will be tougher and tougher.

A single 55w is more than enough. I used DIY for a decade. I never had an "explosion" or any significant problems except not enough CO2 or remembering to change the brew.

Look into DIY, even if you feel not that competent, I assure you it's not rocket science.

Might want to see about getting a decent substrate also. Regular Home Depot bulbs work just as well as aquarium bulbs. Look for daylight bulbs and 5000K to 6500K bulbs if you go the 2x20w route. PC bulbs same color temps also.

Regards,
Tom Barr
 
djlen is right. If you add much more than 2wpg you will really need to start watching the CO2, NO3 ,P , K , Traces, waterchanges etc...

Your chances of getting an algaebloom will be much larger (GW, hairalgae, BBA , staghorn etc)

Next will come experimentation with not enough nutrients and plantproblems - lack of growth, yellow/brown leaves, smaller leaves etc.

I'm not trying to discourage you as you have got some good answers particularly from RTR , plantbrain and djlen. You need to reconcider what you are thinking about high light .

I did the same and things can go downhill VERY, VERY fast.

Go with 2wpg, DIY CO2 and flourite for substrate.

That will be a good start. For algae crew I would get a few amano shrimp (10-40) and 3-5 otocinclus
 
I also just started a 20H tank and have half Flourite Red, half Sand substrate. I am using the Nutrafin (Hagen) Natural Plant System which is glorified DIY CO2. I have had my tank running now for only 5 days and have already had some nice growth. I haven't even started adding fertilizers yet (waiting about a week to slowly start adding).

I bought a double FL fixture from Lowes for about $16 and for about $5 each got one "Natural Color" 5000k bulb, and one "Daylight Deluxe" 6500k bulb. The Natural Color bulb has a CRI of 92 (really nice for cheap bulbs!) I'm at exactly 2w/gal and my CO2 content in the water is about 18ppm (good number) and holding steady. I really like the looks of the amount of light and the colors. Plants seem to be doing well too, even though they are just barely getting settled. Many are budding or sending up new shoots. I'm growing the following plants:(several of each)

Microsorum pteropus (Java Fern)
Anubias nana
Cryptocoryne wendtii (both red and green varieties)
Cryptocoryne cordata
Ceratophyllum demersum (great for algae control)
Echinodorus bleheri (Amazon Sword)
Micranthemum umbrosum (Baby Tears)
Alternanthera ficoidea (Green Hedge)
??? (Mondo Grass) don't know correct name

I see no problems so far growing these plants. Many were doing worse at my LFS and are "perking up" now. It's not a really expensive setup either. I wanted to try planted tanks without all the "up front" money involved. 20H tank seems fine to me for now! Enjoy it, and don't go crazy on the lights.
 
To calculate the wattage used by Takashi Amano in his various tanks, they came up with the following formula :

Watts = 22.65 x Gallons ^ 0.46

If you follow the link.. you get the theory behind it. I get a kick out of the research that was involved in this calculation.

For a 20 gallon tank they suggest approximately 90 watts or 4.5 watts/gallon.


I have 80 in mine as I calculated approximately 4 gallons of space were being taken up by substrate/rocks/wood. High wattage requirements like glossostigma are doing well.
 
Kas chill.
These poll threads change everytime you refresh the main AC page.
You can post on a thread if you like as long as its open.
So don't freak.
 
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