what shoudl my light watt be

Chuck_T

Chuck_T

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May 19, 2006
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i ahve a 20 g tank with a 18 watt light about 5 differnt plants would be about 10 but cant seem to live longer than 2 months healthily not enough light also im battling bba i think
 
A 20 gallon tank needs about 30 watts of light over it to grow most of the low-light plants, so you need to increase your lighting.

Also, hopefully, the plants you've got aren't medium or high-light plants, or else you will need to get much more lighting--more like 40-60 watts.
 
Not to hijack someones thread but how many watts do you need for low light plants in a 55g. I have 2 15 watt lights, obviously not enough, but what is the minimum I would have to have in order to grow some java moss and java fern?
 
I would say you need about 80 watts of fluorescent lighting to grow low-light plants such as java moss/ fern over a 55 gallon.
 
i had cabombas they died i had one that looked like a monkey tree it died now i got some type of swrod lookin one and penny wort i think (its turnign red) and ludwigi (red one) and i got anubias they seem to be doin the best
 
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Ms.Bubbles said:
I would say you need about 80 watts of fluorescent lighting to grow low-light plants such as java moss/ fern over a 55 gallon.
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you can grow java moss and java fern in less than 1 wpg. It wont die if you grow it in 0.5 wpg. It will just look like its not growing at all but it will stay good looking.
 
debaric said:
you can grow java moss and java fern in less than 1 wpg. It wont die if you grow it in 0.5 wpg. It will just look like its not growing at all but it will stay good looking.
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I wouldn't recommend that people try to grow plants at only .5 wpg. If you want your plants to actually GROW (not just survive without dying) 1.5 watts per gallon is a nice starting point IMO. It will be more than enough for the java moss, good for java ferns, and at this light level you can add any of the low-light plants later if you want to.
 
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Ms.Bubbles said:
A 20 gallon tank needs about 30 watts of light over it to grow most of the low-light plants, so you need to increase your lighting.

Also, hopefully, the plants you've got aren't medium or high-light plants, or else you will need to get much more lighting--more like 40-60 watts.
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My Hydro, Val, Anubias and Java moss are all flourishing in my 20g with a 15watt bulb over it...

I was having some real issues with my corkscrew val's but that was a macro-nutrient issue that I recently resolved. I've started getting feeders again and they stopped melting and i've even caught them pearling after a long day ...

(I had to start dosing Phospherous Sulfate from Gregwatson to correct my issues)

I also just introduced that hornwart or whatever the hell the bushy plant is and since adding it the thing has been flourishing at an alarming rate.

For a while I hit a little snag where things weren't growing all that fast but I added co2 and started dosing Excel and then everything really took off... My anubias has popped out a total of four leaves between the two of them.

I don't personally think 15watt is an issue for many low light plants :/
 
1-2 watts per gallon is recommended for low light plants. Starting with only 1 watt per gallon is risky when you consider that fluorescent lighting decreases in strength over time. If plants are not doing well (as the original poster stated), I would insure that the appropriate amount of light is there to begin with, then fertilizers would be my next step.

In the case of the original poster, we can't even be sure that the plants in question are low-light ones. They may be much more demanding than 1-2 watts per gallon.

Chuck--Another point to consider is the length of time plants lights are on. 10-12 hours a day is recommended for good growth (12 hours max or algae can become a problem).
 
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