Lighting Watts/Gallon

[deeplove]

Echinodorus tenellus – pygmy chain sword? It requires a bit more light than the other plants you listed. There are a few echinodorus plants that do well in low light, but they are generally taller varieties. The chain sword might still grow (I’m trying it out in my low light tank, just got some 3 weeks ago) in lower light but it won’t be as thick (carpet-like) from what I read.

Pigmy Chain... I think that's it. If I'm going to use that and the plants that I did mention, what wattage should I aim for?

 

[anonapersona]

hood type

What sort of hood do you have? flourescent tubes or incandescent? strip over glass top or plastic hood?

 

[dougall]

Not sure who the question was addressed to.. but I currently have a flourescent strip over a plastic hood.

But I'm assuming when I upgrade I'd be getting a glass top, which is leaning me away from getting a retrofit kit, I'd prefer something that's attached to the tank seeing as I have a 3 year old running rampant through the house.

 

[anonapersona]

Not sure who the question was addressed to.. but I currently have a flourescent strip over a plastic hood.

But I'm assuming when I upgrade I'd be getting a glass top, which is leaning me away from getting a retrofit kit, I'd prefer something that's attached to the tank seeing as I have a 3 year old running rampant through the house.

To keep the plastic hood, you'd go with a retrofit kit. Keep the plastic hood, rip the guts out of the strip that matches it, install the new stuff inside that strip, add the big ballast to the back of the old strip, so the whole thing looks just like it did before but for the silver ballast thing hidden on the back of the strip where you won't notice it. Most plastic hoods fit onto the tank pretty securely and the strip fits onto the hood pretty well.

 

[phanmc]

Cool.

So for a 10G heavily planted tank, what would be the required amount of wattage per gallon? I'm basically going with Java Moss, Java fern and Anubias Nanas. But I also wanted to get some plants that look grass. I think they're called micro swords or something, to carpet the substrate.

I'm such a NEWB.

There's microsword (Lilaeopsis brasiliensis or novae-zelandiae) and there's pygmy chain sword (Echinodorus tenellus). The microsword grows shorter but are much harder to keep than e. tenellus.

For a 10 gallon tank to grow e. tenellus you'll want to aim at around 4wpg since the wpg rule breaks down for smaller tank, you need a little more juice from the lower wattage bulbs. You can grow them with less light but they will tend to grow tall.

Please note that your plant choices consists of slow growing plants which are not ideal for nutrient uptake during the cycling process. Slow growing plants don't absorb nutrients fast enough to protect your fishes. Add fast growing plants like wisteria, anacharis, water sprite, ludwigia repens, and hornwort for at least the first month.

 

[deeplove]

There's microsword (Lilaeopsis brasiliensis or novae-zelandiae) and there's pygmy chain sword (Echinodorus tenellus). The microsword grows shorter but are much harder to keep than e. tenellus.

For a 10 gallon tank to grow e. tenellus you'll want to aim at around 4wpg since the wpg rule breaks down for smaller tank, you need a little more juice from the lower wattage bulbs. You can grow them with less light but they will tend to grow tall.

Please note that your plant choices consists of slow growing plants which are not ideal for nutrient uptake during the cycling process. Slow growing plants don't absorb nutrients fast enough to protect your fishes. Add fast growing plants like wisteria, anacharis, water sprite, ludwigia repens, and hornwort for at least the first month.

Thanks Spud. I'll look into those microswords then. How tall do they usually get? Oh, and as for the plants you mentioned, are they all stem plants? I know the sprites you can leave them floating. And I know a bit about the hornwort.

And another thing... How much hours of light should I provide them?

Oh, and has anyone tried the Hagen natural system CO2 that they sell in Petsmart? It runs around $20 something. I wanted to know if it's worth it or should I go for something bigger or better?

 

[phanmc]

Lilaeopsis usually stay under 3 inches. The plants I listed are stem plants since they tend to be the fastest growers, the ones I listed are pretty common and easy to take care of. Lights should be on for 10-12hrs a day.

The Nutrafin CO2 kit is basically a DIY yeast setup with an easy to hide fermentation chamber and a unique and fairly effective diffuser/bubble counter. Its a good kit for small tanks if you're not the DIY type or don't have any place to hide the fermentation chamber.