My plants are melting...

how to figure out whether t-5, t-8, t-12, etc.:

with the "t" bulbs the number after the t refers to the thickness. most of us know that. what some of us don't know is that number also means eighths of an inch. so a t-5 will be around 5/8" thick where a t-12 will be around 1 1/2" thick.

mg, manzanitadude, and i think spunjin are all selling driftwood right now. i get mine from my local river. that way i don't have to strip the bark, dry it, age it etc. i just bring it home, hose/brush it off, and boil it in a turkey fryer. the boiling gets rid of any nasties and sinks most peices in about or less than 6 hours usually. it's also FREE that way.

oh, and those plants in the tubes with the gel are a big problem. not only do most places refuse to stop selling them, but when i told my lfs that petco was selling non-aquatic plants as aquatics they (i guess) figured they could make a buck too cause now they carry them also... scammers. i can't believe it's legal.

as for the biotype i might just grab a couple low light plant packages from people here. once they matured and are doing well i would trade my extras to get what i was looking for. once i was satisfied that i had what i wanted then i could sell or do a raok with anything that doesn't fit my biotype. that should give you some time to figure out what works for you, in your setup, with your water and get some experience. just make sure you are getting them from people with low light tanks like msj.
 
Thanks for the advice, everyone.

I'm interested to check out the "T" rating of my lighting at home. How does the T-rating of the bulb effect it's intensity, etc.? Will I want to purchase higher wattage bulbs to achieve a higher watts per gallon or is that a matter of adding more bulbs to increase wattage?
 
I looked into the lighting systems that come with AGA tanks. They seem to be using a T-8 style bulb.

Is there any benefit from the larger sized bulbs? Higher wattage perhaps?
 
the spectral curve seems to be more important than what size when it comes to t-5 and t-8 bulbs although t-5 is more efficient. also watts per gallon is just a rough estimate that helps people communicate/understand... not a golden rule. those that really know better seem to use a par meter or a par meter in conjunction with a mathematical formula that includes the listed spectral curve of a particular bulb. what they want to know is the lumens output in relation to the blue end of the spectrum (light useable by/available to the plants).

one rule of thumb that's true to form with any flourescent bulbs is given the same wattage the thinner bulbs will produce more light. i personally use what's available that i can afford. i am running 4 t-8 bulbs and 2 ge 6500k daylight cfl bulbs on my 2 tanks. works fine for me.
 
thats a really low amount of light for plants. i'd reccomend upping the amount of light, and trying some seachem liquid ferts. i use the seachem flourish excel (organic carbon for the planted aquarium) and seachem flourish (comprehensive plant supplement for the planted aquaruim), and it keeps my plants growing well.

the combination of low light and no ferts is prob whats killing ur plants.

also, they may not even be aquatic plants, which could explain it.
 
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