Would I be able to use this light.

[katschamne]

I had a 3 gallon Eclipse with 4 anubias plants in it and about 3 months ago the light fixture shorted out. The plants have been sitting in the dark since then. I started to replace the fixture when I remembered I really hated this tank. I had a 7 gallon glass bowfront tank that was used as a nano reef tank sitting around empty so I decided to clean it up. When we set it up as a reef tank we had retrofitted the light to a 32 watt 50/50 CFL. About a month before I gave up on the reef tank I had purchased a new bulb.

Last week I purchased a pure yellow half moon plakat betta and decide this was the time to get everything rolling. For substrate I used the Eco-Complete. I have an Aqueon 20 on the tank because the old filter was beyond disgusting and again I had this one laying around. I took the plants out of the darken 3 gallon and surprisingly they were still alive just a couple of leaves are a little lighter green in color. I did add to the anubias, a couple of crpytos, some java fern and some micro swords. I really hate to buy a new light since it is really only a month old. Is it possible to make do with this light for awhile or am I going to have huge problems. I don't have any co2 and right now I have the lights on about 7-8 hours. The bulb is the Smartpaq daylight 10000K/Actinic 460nm 32W The other option that I was looking at if the one I have in there right now won't work is the Smartpaq 6700K/10000K 18W. Any thoughts I would appreciate.​

 

[THE V]

The 10,000K light is the wrong spectrum for plants. The 32W of a 3 gallon tank is also a lot of light for Anubis. For plants you generally want to shoot for 5000-6000K lights.

With that lamp you may be heading towards an algae farm. The only way to know for sure is to test it out. I'd look at getting a 12-15W light that has the right spectrum if you run into problems.

 

[constevens]

You would be better off with a CFL bulb with MUCH less light. With the light your talking of using your tank will be an algae far faster then you can think.. Not only that most the plants you listed are low light types of plants. What they need is a 5,000 to 6,700k light. Really easy and cheap to do a single CFL over the top of the tank with like a desktop light that points downward. Or even one of the utility cone shaped light fixtures with the single CFL bulb in it. The plants need lower light with longer exposure in the 8 to 10 hour range.

 

[katschamne]

Okay, I was trying to save money because I had already had this light and the retro fit was expensive so I didn't want to get rid of the light. It is also an odd size, they no longer make the 7 gallon bow front. Since I have to get new lights does anyone know if these lights would work. http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3578+3733+10704+23550&pcatid=23550 here is another picture of it:
http://www.petmountain.com/product/...442-525827/marineland-led-aquarium-light.html

 

[cradlefan]

It's not the 10,000K bulb that will be the problem, it's the actinic bulb.......I grew freshwater plants great under 10,000K bulbs. Anyway, you could use LED's for your 3 gallon, just 32 watts is a ton of light. I have a little 3 gallon Crescent tank, and it has I think an 8 watt LED fixture over it, which the java ferns, anubias nana, and nymphae stellata love. The tank looks great. I think if you looked around, you might be able to find an LED fixture that would work over your tank, it just might take some retrofitting.

 

[constevens]

I personally don't know much about led lights to tell if it has enough light or the right spectrum. I have heard to get that spectrum it takes some specific colors and a fair amount of leds to make it matter. There are some that use led for reef. But nether of those say they work for that either. It tells me it might not be enough light or the right light. On those I would differ to someone that knows more on led.

 

[katschamne]

The three gallon is gone. The light fixture shorted out. In the three gallon I had a 9 w light which was 3 watts per gallon and the anubias did well. I did find a bulb that would fit my new fixture it's a 6700K 28 watt. Which comes out to 4 watt per gallon for my 7 gallon. I also hear that the 10000K doesn't have the right spectrum as well. Do you think that the 4 watts per gallon will still be too much for the anubias?

 

[jpappy789]

wpg is a rather useless measurement for lighting other than T12's and it's especially useless for such a small tank. Consider that a plant needs a given amount of light, regardless of the volume of water it resides in...9w of light isn't a lot of light.

I also agree that the K rating isn't a huge issue. I've grown plants just fine at 10,000 K alone.

What type of lighting is this 28w fixture?

 

[katschamne]

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002DVRF2K/ref=oh_o00_s00_i00_details this is the one that I purchased. We retrofitted the strip light that came with the tank when it was used a nano reef tank. That is the light that is the light that I am using right now until I get the new one in the mail. It should be here anytime. The nice thing about this light is that I can use shorter lengths in the fixture but finding one is the problem in the light spectrum I need. Mind you this is a 7 gallon tank with mainly anubias.