plant newbie - lighting question

fish_gal77

fish_gal77

AC Members
Sep 13, 2005
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Orange County, CA
I just got a new aquarium and plan to try my hand at plants. I want to start out low tech for now, mostly due to $$ constraints. I got flourite and mixed it 50/50 with gravel - I really like the look of it btw, the flourite has a great coloration :)

I currently have two standard 18" fluorescent strips with one 15W bulb in each. They have starters in them that are rated 4-22W, does this mean I can get a higher wattage bulb? I have a 44G pentagon tank that is 24" deep... will anything grow in this tank without upgrading the lighting and adding CO2?
 
Flourite is a good start - even at 50/50.

Are you talking about starters (small round tube like item) or ballasts (rectangular like item)? I am only familiar with electronic solid state ballasts (do not use started as descrived above) so I do not know if the magnetic ballasts have ratings on their starters. Nontheless, if the item is rated for max 22W, yes you can get a tube at 22W with no issues.

Note: I have heard you can "overdrive" ballasts for more watts. However, I do not know how to do so or what the inherient list of risks is.

Now for watts - currently at 15W each for a total of 30W on 44G Hex (which is tall) is only .67Watts per gallon. This is quite low and even lower on a taller tank since the light has to penetrate more to get to the plants on the gravel. At that amount of light, I dont think you could grow plants. This is NOT to say you can not - that ultimately is up to the determination of the aquarist and plant.

If you CAN upgrade to the max rated amount of 22W per bulb you will be at 44W total, thus .98WPG - just barely enough - possibly - to grow some low light plants. Even then, since this is a tall tank the WPG will be less.

If you want to try your hand at plants despite a possible hinderance of insuffecient light, use Java Fern and Anubias's. These are slow growers that need little maintenance and light. People have been successful growing them at ~1WPG and some have not.

Good Luck in quest for plants

Aries
 
I don't believe you can go with higher wattage bulbs with your current setup. So, you're now on 0.68wpg which is fairly low, plus your tank is deep which makes it still more limiting. I'll suggest some of the more common low light plants.

java moss
java fern
crypts
anubias
bolbitis

However I can't guarantee good growth at your light levels. An option is to build up rockwork and driftwood and then attach the plants nearer the top so they can get more light. That would work with the plants I've listed except the crypts. I'm not too familiar with most crypts so someone else would have to say if they can grow in your lighting.

You might want to check out AHSupply and take a look at the 55watt bright kit. It would make a huge difference and I've yet to hear anything negative about their product.
 
I think what I'm going to do is try some of the plants recommended by reiverix and see how things go. I'll likely eventually get 2 of the 36W bright kits from AHSupply... the 55W is too large to fit over my tank unless I replace the cover with an all glass one. It currently has a black plastic cover with two 18" rectangles cut out and inlayed with glass. The cut outs have a lip on them so that the lights sit in just the right spots.

BTW, Aries - the lights I have now are really low tech, it IS just a starter and not a ballast! I have a feeling I'll be upgrading sooner than I think. But first I need to get it filled with water and cycled :)

I can't believe I've had the thing for 2 whole days and have not filled it with water!!!
 
ok, so i read the article and all and i have one question, IS THERE A SITE THAT WILL TRANSLATE THIS INTO ENGLISH SO THAT I MAY WEIGHT IT AS AN OPTION FOR MY LIGHTING?! lol, im sorry, but im very new to planted aquaria but i do want to try it out. if you can give all the info, perhaps in english, that would be greatly appreciated!!! :thm:
 
Disclaimer: The following information should be used at your own risk
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here's some more links that may help, basically it's really easy. the only hard part for me was finding the ballast that worked. I got the Advance REL-4P32-SC from border states electronics for about $18 after getting one from home depot that didn't work.

get your ballast
get some flourescent bulb connectors (<$3 @ home depot)
get a power cord, old pc power cord, or anything that you feel like gutting for a 3 prong power cord.
some wire nuts

on the ballast you're going to have 4 wires coming out of both sides, one side is white, black, and 2 yellow. the other side is 2 blue and 2 red.
take the 2 yellow and plug them into one of the bulb connectors (see http://www.gwapa.org/articles/ODNO/ for pic) and plug the 2blue and 2red into the other connector, there are typically 4 wire slots in the connector.
now take your power cord, cut off the end (not while plugged in!) strip the wires, connect them to the white and black wire coming from the ballast. now the ground (green wire) from the power cord should be connected to the body of the ballast. I used a small nut and bolt to bolt it down to one of the corners of the ballast.
TRIPPLE check your connections, don't want anyone getting shocked!
if all is well, plug in the bulb, plug in the cord and let there be light.

here's some of the links where I got this info:

http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6415
http://www.geocities.com/teeley2/overdrv1.html
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=175
 
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