David593

Well I didn't know about the whole WPG thing and plants before getting my bulbs. When at the local fish store, I asked about lighting and told them I had a 55 gallon tank that needed two 18" lights. He said that this would be ok for plants:http://www.drsfostersmith.com/produc...87&pcatid=3787

The only problem is that each light is only 15 watts. Thats 30 watts in a 55 gallon tank! All the bulbs I see at the LFS are the same at only 15w for bulbs that big! Do I really need to get a double or triple lighting hood. Double would only give me 60 watts (1wpg) and triple would only give me 90 watts (less than 2wpg). The lighting says it simulates natural day-light, but is it not enough? Also I keep the widow blinds up all day so that light enters the room.

dvc_r

Your choice in plants will be limited with low light. Some of the choices you can plant with "stock aquarium lighting" are Aponogetons, Cryptocorynes, Anubias, and aquatic ferns. Some of the stores (ie Petsmart) carry betta Bulbs, I'm not sure the actual name but they're cheap and grow like weeds!

this sight may help you:
http://www.plantgeek.net/plantguide_...=1&filter_by=2




One other note: Be careful with natural sunlight, your tank can fill up with algae real fast.

David593

ok. Out of curiosity, how do people get to that pint of 3wpg. Do they get like quatruple hooded lighting? All the bulbs I have seen are only 15w, so quatruple lighting would be needed and yet it would still not be 3wpg it would be only 2.2wpg

MPrudent

People achieve that amount of light by using different types of bulbs and fixtures. I run 4 96W power compacts on my 125G planted tank to achieve 384 watts. Other fixtures include T-5 HO, VHO, and Metal Halide. I would suggest you run a 48" power compact at 2x65W. It wont give you the full 3wpg but should be enough for any low to moderate light plants.

David593

well I don't have the money to upgrade to a new 100+ dollar lighting fixture. What are some plants that would work? I just added some anacharis and a small anubias plant.

MPrudent

Most ferns, mosses, and some crypts can be added. The anubias and anacharis will work just fine. Have you looked at possibly looked into a hanging flourescent shop light from lowes or home depot. Sometime those can make good cheap fixtures to use while you save up to buy the one you want/need. This way you get a few extra wpg and dont have to spend an arm and leg.

David593

thanks for the suggestion. I think that right now, I will just stick to low-light plants. I was thinking of using hornwort as a floating plant. Also, I just need one more background plant. I could put another anacharis, but I would prefer a dif. type.

vintagetankgirl

You could try a cheaper method. Current Nova T5 lights are designed to buy what you can now and add on later. This is the manufacturers website http://www.current-usa.com/nova.html
And the website has a sale on them: http://www.petmountain.com/product/a...rofit-10k.html

You can mount multiple lights together and only buy one at a time. 48" lights are 28 watt but put out the same amount of lights as 40 watts. You could go with between 3 to 6 of these. They are 10,000K daylight, and there is also a night light called Actinic that is blue in color. Together they make a great 24 hour lighting system for a planted tank.

I hope this helps!

David593

Thanks for the info. Those are very interesting lights. I'll look into that.

Now I have just two more questions:

~I need a floating plant. I wanted to put hornwort but read that the leaves fall and cause a little mess. What abouut the anacharis. From what I read, I can just cut the stems a little to prune and just let the cuttings float and grow. Is that true?
~Do the following plants; anubias, anacharis and other similar low-light plants need plant fertilizer? It seems that they can get their nutrients from the fish waste and them exhaling CO2

MissMTS

1. I have used water sprite and anarchis as floating plants and both work great

2. I would start without fertilizer and only add it if you need it. I used Flourish for a while in one of my tank until the excess nutrients caused a major algae breakout. My low light plants do fine with just the fish waste for nutrients

David593

Thanks. I will look into water sprite as I like to have variety!

dvc_r

Why spend 30 bucks each on temporary "retrofits"? IMO put the money away and save it toward a real light. Here is a single compact that I have on my 55 gal:
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/produc...8&pcatid=11418

It lists for $152, but I found it on sale for $120. That will give you 2.5 WPG, and it even has moon lights that look real nice at night. (Check my profile, it's on my 55 gal and that has all live plants)

vintagetankgirl

The reason to do this is to have lighting, good lighting, on a budget. I set up a tank for a friend using these lights. She could only afford one with every paycheck. These lights pack a big punch for the price and the price makes them affordable for people who can't afford spend a lot of money at once.

For a 55 buying 3 would still be under $100 and would give you over 2wpg considering that the 28w = 40w.

capekate

Hi David,
I had hornwort in my tank and I have to tell you it was a real mess! Yes, the needles fall off every time you go near it and float all over the tank. I would never get hornwort again and it was a mess to get out of the tank.
The java moss, which I have in my 55 with the standard light does fine as will the anubias. Of course you can always add fert tabs or nothing at all.
Whatever you add to the plants will surely help them tho in the low light. But try to stay away from things like the amazon sword, which I tried in my tank but it died, low lights are not the thing for them.

David593

Thanks! That looks like a really nice system. I'll look into that in the future. I plan on having this tank for a long time so now I know what I can look into for an upgrade.

Thanks for the tip on the hornwort. You mentioned java moss. Could that be used as a floating plant? I am considering that or anacharis. Thanks!

agabr123

i think java moss needs to be anchored to something to grow. for example, i have a thin layer of java moss tied to driftwood, large rocks, that sort of thing and they do fairly well, i dont know if it would grow if you were to just float it in the tank, but it would be interesting to see if it worked

David593

Yah. I looked it up and sites say that it will just sink and anchor itself.

well its day two and the anubias seems fine. The anachoris however seems to be paleing. The leaves are turning more translusent and the leaves seems a little frayed. Also, near the bottom there seem to be brownish spots. what's wrong with it? I have it buried with the lead weight still on. It also had a rubber-band to keep it together. Could this be the problem?

ammonia-0
nitrites-0
nitrates-10
pH-6.4