crazedACD

Hi guys. Was just wondering if incandescent light is fine for plants? 10g with two 15w incandescent bulbs...should I pretty much be able to keep most plants with that lighting? I'd really like to try some carpet plants...any recommendations? Is it possible to heavily plant the tank without CO2? Considering using Eco-Complete, plant ferts, etc. Unsure of stock yet.

Nutter

Incandescent bulbs are extremely inefficient. They put out massive amounts of heat but very little light for the energy they use. They are the next best thing to useless in any aquarium & even worse in planted tanks. Try using some of the 'energy saver' type bulbs instead. I've used those with great success before in growing plants. You can often find them in certain Kelvin rating to so you can control the sort of light that the plants will be recieving. If this is for th e55gal in your aquarium info, I strongly reccommend that you invest in some flourescent light fixtures. How many of what type will be determined by what plants you wish to grow. If you can provide a list of the plants you are interested in trying, I can provide reccomendations on how much light you will need to aim for.

Planting density has nothing to do with light intensity for the most part. You can heavily plant a low light tank so long as you stick to low light plants & keep up on your pruning to make sure none of the plants get too heavily shaded by taller plants. Most carpeting plants require high levels of light so if you are going to do a low light tank then you will need to stick to low light plants that can be used as a carpet like Java Moss or some varieties of Crypt.

Eco-Complete is fantastic in almost any planted tank. Be sure to use substrate fertiliser tabs even with the Eco-Complete. The nutrients that are in it don't last for very long & will need to be topped up regularly.

crazedACD

Thanks for the quick response.

This is for a 10g...this is the hood I'm working with.


It is possible I could switch to a glass top and buy other lighting but if this will work for now "getting my feet wet" in plants...I'd like to try and use it. Do you think the energy saving bulbs (the swirly ones? haha) will work on this?

I've had my eye on dwarf hairgrass as a carpet plant. Also maybe anubias congensis (or some other broaded leaf plant), dwarf sagittaria, Madagascar lace maybe...depends on what I can find, water sprite...

Algae Eater

The new energy saving bulbs are meant to be interchangable with incandescents, so you should be able to find something to fit in there. But it's going to be hard to find one that doesn't create too much light in that hood. I'll let Nutter tell you about the plants--he knows what he's talking about!

Nutter

I would get a set of glass lids for the tank & remove the plastic bulb protectors from the hood. I would probably also paint the inside of the reflector flat white or glue Mylar/mirror film inside it. that will maximise the amount of light you can get out of your fixture. Energy saver bulbs should fit straight into that hood. They put out much more light per watt than incandescent bulbs & don't use anywhere near the same amount of energy. Also they put out light that is more usable to plants than incandescents.

As for the plants, you might have issues trying to grow dwarf hairgrass. It's a very high light requirement plant that I think will be touch & go wether or not you will have enough light for. If you have enough light for dwarf hairgrass, you ae probably going to need to supplement with a carbon source, (Excel, DIY or injected), & add nutrients to avoid algae issues. Perhaps using Pygmy Chain Sword, (Echinodorus Tenellus), as a carpet would be a better choice as far as lighting & ease of care goes for. It still requires fairly strong lighting but not as much as the Dwarf Hairgrass does. It is also a much hardier plant & can tolerate a few beginers mistakes.

The Madagascar Lace & Dwarf Sag should be fine with the amount of light you can provide for them. You will have plenty of light for any Anubius species Water Sprite & any other low-med light species you might be interested in. All of this is assuming that you switch from the incandescent bulbs to teh energy saver type or upgrade the lighting in some other way.