BettaFishMommy
finkids make me happy :-)
Your system sounds like mine was before I upgraded- was it a so called "all-you-need" kit?
If so, those bulbs I think are 17w each... I had the same setup and my plants were looking fine at .62wpg. Granted I hunted down plants that were classified as "hardy" and "low light" to make sure I had success. High light requiring plants would probably have died... and indeed, the one plant that didn't do well was an Amazon sword.
Since upgrading to 2.2wpg I've noticed greater growth- but it wasn't that bad to begin with.
(I also have algae on the glass that I never had before- so I need to do some balancing!)
i didn't buy these florescent lights as part of a kit, they came with the tank used from my local online classifieds. they are not matching (one is 30 inches long, the other 35, and that is measuring across the top of the black plastic casing). both say 'Eclipse daylight' on them and i've searched for a wattage but there are no numbers anywhere on the bulb that i can see without taking it out of the housing.
funny you should say your amazon sword did poorly. mine is taller than the tank and growing and shooting out new leaves on a regular basis. no black spots or dying leaves either. maybe having a strong filter flow nearly on top of the sword and lots of oxygenation from two hobs and a dropped water level helps?
algae? what's that? lol. i don't have any.
