lighting
- Thread starter isaac newton
- Start date
maybe you should look into compact flourescent lighting. You can buy retrofit kits for your hood at www.ahsupply.com
It will bump your wattage up and still maintain a small footprint.
Agree with others about the sand and coral substrate. Get rid of it. Flourite and Onyx sand mixed is a great substrate.
It will bump your wattage up and still maintain a small footprint.
Agree with others about the sand and coral substrate. Get rid of it. Flourite and Onyx sand mixed is a great substrate.
You can not put a higher wattage bulb in a fixture that is designed specifically for one bulb. Besides, each size flourescent only comes in one wattage. What you need is a new fixture that holds two bulbs, or a power compact flourescent fixture as someone mentioned.
Wow, a ton of Oregonians running around here. I thought I was the only one.
isaac newton you have to understand that "marine" products are for a marine tank (salt water). Coral and beach sand are fantastic substrates for salt water tanks. If you want to put together a planted fresh-water tank you need to try to re-create nature as best you can. Fresh water plants do not grow in beds of crushed coral. They grow in dirt/rock beds. These SeaChem products are designed to re-create a natural substrate and therefore are quite good.
Where are you? If you are in the Portland area go check out The Wet Spot on Sandy blvd.. like 60th & Sandy in the Holleywood district. They have about 8 different types of substrate from small river rock, fluorite, onyx sand & gravel... a whole bunch. Also, Holleywood Aquarium is right around there to. The Wet Spot has more fresh water stuff, Holleywood has more salt-water stuff. Both are pretty good LFSs.
I use a 60/40 combination of Red Fluorite/ Small river rock because the fluorite is rather expensive (~$1.00/lb) compared to the river rock (~$0.25/lb). It seems to function well, but the red fluorite was a PITA to clean. If I had it to do over I'd go with regular fluorite.
isaac newton you have to understand that "marine" products are for a marine tank (salt water). Coral and beach sand are fantastic substrates for salt water tanks. If you want to put together a planted fresh-water tank you need to try to re-create nature as best you can. Fresh water plants do not grow in beds of crushed coral. They grow in dirt/rock beds. These SeaChem products are designed to re-create a natural substrate and therefore are quite good.
Where are you? If you are in the Portland area go check out The Wet Spot on Sandy blvd.. like 60th & Sandy in the Holleywood district. They have about 8 different types of substrate from small river rock, fluorite, onyx sand & gravel... a whole bunch. Also, Holleywood Aquarium is right around there to. The Wet Spot has more fresh water stuff, Holleywood has more salt-water stuff. Both are pretty good LFSs.
I use a 60/40 combination of Red Fluorite/ Small river rock because the fluorite is rather expensive (~$1.00/lb) compared to the river rock (~$0.25/lb). It seems to function well, but the red fluorite was a PITA to clean. If I had it to do over I'd go with regular fluorite.
Thx
K thx. Ill try to find a local pond shop.. Since you live near the Portland area I’m wondering if I can just go to my local river (which there are many clean rivers here in Pacific Northwest, which I’m sure u already know
) And just take a bucket and pick up some mud and rocks? If so how do u clean it? I have about 30$ worth of neon’s guppies and Crabs and don’t want to take unnecessary risk of putting mud that can potentially kill all the neon’s and guppy fry that are in there.. I’m a 16year old kid that already asked my parents to cough out 24$ for crushed seashells and sand, I really don’t think they are going to be enthusiastic to hear that I wasted it all on useless minerals 
P.S. Thanks for all your help..
K thx. Ill try to find a local pond shop.. Since you live near the Portland area I’m wondering if I can just go to my local river (which there are many clean rivers here in Pacific Northwest, which I’m sure u already know
) And just take a bucket and pick up some mud and rocks? If so how do u clean it? I have about 30$ worth of neon’s guppies and Crabs and don’t want to take unnecessary risk of putting mud that can potentially kill all the neon’s and guppy fry that are in there.. I’m a 16year old kid that already asked my parents to cough out 24$ for crushed seashells and sand, I really don’t think they are going to be enthusiastic to hear that I wasted it all on useless minerals P.S. Thanks for all your help..
about the light:
HEy!
i've got an idea. Actualy I've been using it already, and it works great for little money. If you use an incandescent hood, the ones you shouldn't use with a normal bulb, you can fit a power compact screw in bulb into it.
A power compact screw in bulb is avalable from the local hardware store. They are a recently new thing (the last few years) and now they come in a range of spectrum and powers. I've got two 19W 6500 K above my 10g fish tank (that's 3.8 watts per gallon!) in the origional incandescent hood. It's so great!
the light bulbs cost about 8$ each, and they screw inot a normal light socket so if you don't have an incandescent hood you could make yourself a hood out of normal light sockets and screw those babys in!
just a thought
-Josh
HEy!
i've got an idea. Actualy I've been using it already, and it works great for little money. If you use an incandescent hood, the ones you shouldn't use with a normal bulb, you can fit a power compact screw in bulb into it.
A power compact screw in bulb is avalable from the local hardware store. They are a recently new thing (the last few years) and now they come in a range of spectrum and powers. I've got two 19W 6500 K above my 10g fish tank (that's 3.8 watts per gallon!) in the origional incandescent hood. It's so great!
the light bulbs cost about 8$ each, and they screw inot a normal light socket so if you don't have an incandescent hood you could make yourself a hood out of normal light sockets and screw those babys in!
just a thought
-Josh
You can pull some rock out of a local river. That shouldn't be a problem. I'm not really fond of that idea though because you never relaly know what you're digging up. Unless you have some knowledge about the local rocks you may end up with some sand-stone or other rocks that could potentially dissolve and change your water chemistry.
I definitely wouldn't use mud... that's just asking for trouble.
So where in Oregon are you? Can you really not afford 30lbs of gravel for $0.25/lb? That's less than $8. If you are on that tight of a budget how are you going to buy plants at $3-6 apice?
edit>
1 more thing. You shouldn't have gone out and spent $24 on substrate without doing a bit of research first. Any reputable LFS would have told you that crushed coral was a bad idea. Before you spend any more money plan out what you think you need and how much you think it will cost. That way you can budget your resources and put the money where you need it most.
I definitely wouldn't use mud... that's just asking for trouble.
So where in Oregon are you? Can you really not afford 30lbs of gravel for $0.25/lb? That's less than $8. If you are on that tight of a budget how are you going to buy plants at $3-6 apice?
edit>
1 more thing. You shouldn't have gone out and spent $24 on substrate without doing a bit of research first. Any reputable LFS would have told you that crushed coral was a bad idea. Before you spend any more money plan out what you think you need and how much you think it will cost. That way you can budget your resources and put the money where you need it most.
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I live around seattle.... Kinda far from portland but i do visit it from time to time.. I usually go crabbing in Oregons coast due to the laxed restrictions they have. (Washington there is way too many)... Anyway... I only have one petstore i usually goto which is petco.. (Too much traffic if i venture into seattle to find petstores) Here is the website on the substrates the offer.. Out of that slection, what would u recomend i buy... Thx
http://www.petco.com/productlisting.asp?tab=3&c1=1038&ct1=D%E9cor&c2=1042&ct2=Gravel&dept_id=1042&
P.S. yeah i am in that tight of a budget.. when my parents started to make me pay my car insurance and gas money is hard to come by..
http://www.petco.com/productlisting.asp?tab=3&c1=1038&ct1=D%E9cor&c2=1042&ct2=Gravel&dept_id=1042&
P.S. yeah i am in that tight of a budget.. when my parents started to make me pay my car insurance and gas money is hard to come by..
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