Starting my first planted tank - Help needed :P

typezero

typezero

AC Members
Apr 9, 2007
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Toronto, Ontario
I have plastic plants in my 20 gallon tank and would like to get more experience in aquarium plants. Im thinking of starting my first planted tank with a 5 gallon. Hopefully with this 5 gallon project i will gain enough know-how to plant my 20 gallon in the near future.

I have a light fixture with 1 coralife '50/50 10 watt' compact bulb. What does the '50/50' mean anyway? The fixture can have 2 and i will get a second one if needed. So currently i have a heater, filter (hush20), the lighting fixture stated above and the 5 gallon tank. I dont think i need co2 for this 5 gallon set up but would like to venture into co2 in the future.

My 20 gallon tank has gravel and im loving the looks of sand and would like to know what type or brand of sand is recommended for a planted tank and how much of it is needed for a 5gallon. Is the one 10watt bulb sufficient for the tank or should i get another or should i get different lights? How many plants should a 5 gallon tank have and what types of plants are noobie friendly?

Also im thinking taking apart the lighting fixture and making my own tank hood with the lights in it. Whats a safe distance for the lights to be above the waterline?

As for stocking im leaning towards a betta or guppies or tetras.
 
50/50 is a 50% daylight 50% actinic I think. Actinic isn't beneficial to freshwater plants, so you'll want to change that bulb.

6500K - 10000K is a good spectrum range to look for in bulbs. Try lightbulbsdirect.com if you can't find the bulbs locally. You'll need both bulbs.

ahsupply.com has great retrofit kits. With compact fluorescents, you only need a few inches above the water.

Java fern, anacharis, java moss, and anubias are all newbie friendly.

I use Eco-Complete planted, but it doesn't look like sand.

Consider harlequin rasboras. They are nice fish.
 
2 watts per gallon is good for the beginner. When you get around 3 wpg, you will need to start worrying about injecting CO2 and adding fertilizers. Although I think CO2, even just the DIY yeast method, is beneficial to any tank.
 
Dude! Blue actinics are very beneficial to plants. They love that spectrum of light. 50/50 bulbs are fine so long as they are 6500 or above. They use 50/50 bulbs in Reef tanks.

Good Luck
 
That 5000k-10000k range is not the exclusive "planted tank range". Photosynthesis is most intense at the lower red spectrums (4000k and lower) and the higher blue spectrums. Ideally one would want a mixture of white light ~5500k, which appeals to human eyes, and reddish light which can further benefit the growth of the plants (and enhance reddish plants in the tanks as well).

So if it were me, I would hope that bulb would be in the 4000k-6000k range if it were my only bulb. Take a look at the following link, it shows a chart of Hagen's bulb specs. Guess which ones are geared toward plants?
http://www.hagen.com/img/aquatic/addinfo/lightbulbspecs.htm
 
typezero said:
I found a Feelux T4 10w CW lighting strip in the garage. Same one as these ( http://www.feelux.com/global/products/decolamp.asp ).
Click to expand...

From the looks of this particular one you linked, it is a cool-white type coating. Not the best for what we do, but may work nonetheless. If I had to hazard a guess, above 6000k new. As bulbs age they shift toward the reddish spectrum, so that may be a factor at play here since you found it in the garage.
 
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