tb19

Ok so i have a incandescent hood with two 10 watt Fluorescent bulbs. They give off bright and intense light. Which plants would be easy to take care of with this sort of lighting?

hamstermann

Is it for the 15 gallon in your signature or another tank? if it's the 15 gal, you have just barely more than 1 watt per gallon, which would mean you would want moderate to low light plants like hornwart, anacharis, amazon sword, guppy grass, and java moss. Personally, I would avoid the java moss and hornwart unless you're not as particular about the cleanliess of you tank as I am. T. he hornwart was a breeding ground for snails and the java moss trapped all the food the fish didn't eat and just looked yucky. anacharis and sword plants are my favorites so far.

Gargoyle

I agree with hamstermann except that I love my hornwort...

griffin

for low light, some other options are java fern, hygros, water sprite, anubas, apons, etc.

if it is the 15 gal, i'm thinking a sword would get too large.

tb19

yeah its my 15 gallon... i've read in an article that swords grow a bit large...
so im guessing only plants that would do best in low to medium light will do

capekate

Hornwort at times is mistaken as a frill plant, as they look alot alike. Hornwort is a more bushy plant and heavier in color than the frill plant that is a lighter green and more delicate. I took out all the hornwort out of my tanks, since they shed like crazy and made an awful mess in the tank. The frill plant does not shed and grows very fast.

Trpimp147

i have a 75gal tank with african cichlids what would be the best plants to put with them

Sabi

I've a 20wat fluorescent in my 67gal,it came with the tank. Is it enough light for the plants? I have a 10wat in my 8gal and its far more brighter than the 67gal.

hamstermann

nope. You want at least 1 watt per gallon for low light plants and generally speaking, the more light you have, the better. 3 wpg is best for most aquatic plants.

Sabi

3 wpg?

griffin

are you asking what wpg is? it's watts per gallon

for a 67 gal tank, you probably want around 134 - 200 watts for most plants, you can go with lower, but it limits your growth rates and plant choice. but it also decreases your need for extra fertilizers

it's up to you what you want to do

skippi

I have ehard that the african cichlids will tear up your plants. You can try a hardier plant like a sword and see what they do because all fish are different and maybe yours will like the plants

Heidi

mYa

hi all,
what is the impact to the fishes if we use 1watt/gallon light? WIll it be too much for the fishes to handle?

I am now using the blue-colored light for my aquarium..the fishes seems not bothered, but i know that it is not enough for the plants growth. I had recently introduce CO2 to my aquarium and still monitoring if the plants will grow...or not..

I feel like the plants are growing slightly or is it just my imagination? ..hehehe...

vin

Well, I can tell you this - you either have an incandecent hood or a fluorescent hood....Are they tube lamps or to they screw in to the fixture? That would determine how easy it would be to manage your wattage without creating excess heat....That's not saying you cannot get screw-in fluorescent lamps to fit an incandescent hood, but they are generally more difficult to find for aquarium use and their ballasts are quite large.

Generally anywhere from 1-3W per gallon should be sufficient for plant growth....I have very easy plants to grow...My background plants are swords, my mid ground plants are red cryptocorine and my foreground plants are anubeus nana....Never need fertilize...just plant and go....I occasionally thin them out to promote growth and with the exception of the nana, I have split them several times. The nana has more than doubled its size over the past year and has just sprouted its second flower.

griffin

you might not be able to find the right bulbs that will fit at a lfs, but walmart, lowe's, home depot, and places like that will have the bulbs. (this is assuming you need the screw in bulbs)

sirdarksol

I'm guessing that he has the same things that I have, fluorescent lights with incandescent bases. They're pretty cheap at Drs Foster and Smith. They draw the same amount of power, but because they don't waste as much energy on heat (you can actually touch them while they're lit and they're just hot, not scalding), they produce more candles of light than an incandescent of the same wattage. They are really popular as home lights, because you can get the equivalent of a 55 watt light bulb in something like 10 watts.

Actually, I have a note/question on the same line. I've had two of these in a 10g tank's hood for a couple of months now, and all of the plants seem to be burning out, unless they are in shadow. For example, I've got water wysteria that the top of is yellow/brown, but the bottom is flourishing and bushing out. Once it reaches beyond the edge of the top's shadow, however, it begins to brown. I've got myrmio that has died off completely, and chain sword that has burned, except for two leaves that are hidden under a piece of driftwood.
I bought all of this from Drs Foster and Smith, and split the plants between this 10g tank and a 29g tank with a single fluorescent tube in the hood. The weird thing is, in the 29g (which shouldn't have enough light for much of anything, all of the plants are flourishing. The wysteria is beautiful and green, the myrmio (which is supposed to be a high-light plant) has already grown tall enough that it has to be trimmed, and the chain sword is well on its way to taking over the bottom of the tank. The two tanks are sitting on the same wall of a room, about 12 feet away from a large bay window that has bamboo shades, as well as a large tree in front of it, so I don't think they're getting an excess of sunlight, but I could be wrong.

griffin

that's interesting about the burning plants. i'd heard similar things, but only when low light plants like anubas and java ferns were placed under super high light.

i wonder if there are other contributing factors.

sirdarksol

There might be, but I think I've matched all of the plants' parameters, other than light. (I'm no master of this, though, so I could be wrong)