Low Light Suggestions?

I'm new to aquariums but also have a planted tank and am endeavouring to deal with the lighting issue. (Since I'm no expert, the following is merely information I have gleaned from various sources.)
How long have your plants been growing in the tank and how are they doing?
From what I've read, it can be quite a tricky balancing act (light, nutrients, algae, CO2 etc) and what combination works for one plant may not work for another.
I have a 22 gallon with a 25 watt Sun-Glo (that is the cheapest aquarium flurorescent sold in my LFS and i'm afraid that's as technical as I get) but my plants are doing really well and even my Cabomba, which is supposed to be a bright light plant is growing like crazy.
I keep reading that it can be helpful to study your plant growth and change things when you notice problems developing.

If you have not already found this, you may like one link I found http://netweb.usc.edu/aquaria/FAQ.plants
 
FAQ -- Thanks

Thanks for the link to the FAQ. My plants have been in the tank for almost 3 weeks, and seem to be settling in nicely. I think I've noticed some new growth on all of them, and they aren't getting pale, glassy-looking, or browning out at all. But I do know that the lighting I have for them is insufficient, long-term, for probably everything but the Java fern.

I checked my hood and what I have is the Perfecto 29 gallon glass aquarium with the Perfecto 30" hood. The light strip sits over a piece of plexiglass and is about 4 1/2" wide. I noticed that Big Al's had an All-Glass 55 watt light strip as well that looks like it might be a perfect fit for my hood. Does anyone know if something like that would likely fit in my Perfecto 30" hood without any overlap or modifications? Here's the link:

http://www.bigalsonline.com/catalog/product.xml?product_id=24075;category_id=1875;pcid1=1843;pcid2=

And I know I'll see a big difference bumping up from the 15watt that came with my hood to 55 watts, but would the difference between 55 watt for the All-Glass and 65 watt for the Coralife be a major one in terms of which plants I could grow and so on?
 
uncskainch said:
I noticed that Big Al's had an All-Glass 55 watt light strip as well that looks like it might be a perfect fit for my hood. Does anyone know if something like that would likely fit in my Perfecto 30" hood without any overlap or modifications?
Click to expand...
I don't know for sure. My hood was an all glass. If you measure your strip lights width across the bottom, I can tell you my All-Glass fixture (which should be the same as the one you order) is 4 1/4 inches from front to back on the bottom.

uncskainch said:
And I know I'll see a big difference bumping up from the 15watt that came with my hood to 55 watts, but would the difference between 55 watt for the All-Glass and 65 watt for the Coralife be a major one in terms of which plants I could grow and so on?
Click to expand...
Well, they're both PC lights, but ten watts is ten watts, plus the coralife is cheaper and you mentioned you were on a budget. Also, I like the reflector in the Corlaife better than the one I had in my All-Glass strip. If you're worried about how it will look, I snapped a photo of mine pushed to the side a bit so you can see how it sits on the lip around the glass. The part at the back that overhangs the most is not where the bulb is. The bulb is all the way forward, so all of the light goes in the tank. The light is simply raised about an 1/8 inch above the glass, but it sits straight and level. Also, please ignore the hard water deposists. I used the flash to get all the detail and obviously it brightned up those white spots from our water that is bascially liquid rock. ;) Here's the photo:
light.jpg

So, as you see it doesn't fit around the little lips like the All-Glass light did, but it certainly does the job. Oh, and my mollies even made an appearance, greedy little begars that they are. I hope this gives you some idea, at least.
 
Harlock said:
Here's the photo:
light.jpg

.
Click to expand...

that hood is the best I've seen of that type, the one we replaced on the ten gallon had such a small opening to let the light down into the aquarium that I doubted that a third of the light got into the tank. the smaller tanks tend to be shorter and don't need every bit of light possible squeezed into the tank to make them work comparied with larger taller tanks.
 
Yeah, it's a fine enough hood for my 29 and my lighting needs. Now, on my 125 (years off but in the planning and budgeting stages) I'll be getting an all glass top so I can do whatever I want for lights. ;)
 
Looks great -- thanks for the pic

Thanks for the picture -- visual learner that I am, that now makes lots of sense. It looks like our tanks are set up very similarly in terms of how the hoods are put together -- I wasn't sure how stable or level it would be from your original description, but this looks terrific and, based on your gorgeous plants, it obviously does the job! And 10 watts more for less money sounds good to me.
 
You're welcome. After I thought about how to describe it, I knew I couldn't do it right, so I simply grabbed the camera. Easy enough!
 
Harlock,
I don't mean to hijack this thread but I have to say this was very helpful for me as I also finally upgraded to a Coralife 65 watt for my 29 gallon tank.

I also meant to ask Harlock about the predominant "lighter green" plants that dominate the mid-back of his tank. I'd like to get some of those myself :)
 
foopooh said:
Harlock,
I don't mean to hijack this thread but I have to say this was very helpful for me as I also finally upgraded to a Coralife 65 watt for my 29 gallon tank.

I also meant to ask Harlock about the predominant "lighter green" plants that dominate the mid-back of his tank. I'd like to get some of those myself :)
Click to expand...

Those plants in the background are Wisteria (Hygrophila difformis). They require high light from my experince. At 1.5 watts per gallon, they did very poorly in my tank. Once i added C02 and 3.7 watts per gallon of light, they took off brilliantly!

Heres a link with some specs on them..........

http://www.tropica.com/default.asp

edit: It may also be the Ceratopteris thalictroides, which is actually the one that more difficult too grow, not the one above i mentioned.
 
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