Dasha

Can you guys recommend a source for aquarium light bulbs? I want to grow live plants but only have setup for 1 24 inch fluorescent. All I saw was 20Watt bulbs in that size - I bought the Flora-GLO by Hagen at Petsmart - it said it was 90 LUX (whatever that means). My tank is 33 gallon.

This is what they have on hagen's website about the bulb:
- 20 W
- 24" (61 cm)
- 25 mm Diameter
- T8
- Service Life - 5000 hours
- For growing plants
- Standard intensity
- Warm photosynthetic spectrum
- Ideal for planted aquariums and terrariums

They also have a wavelenght diagram, which doesn't help me:
http://www.hagen.com/usa/aquatic/pro...01016150020101

Can anybody help me figure this out or recomend a different bulb?
Not much if you ask me, can't figure out the "K" number.


Thanks,
Dasha

sirdarksol

You don't need to post it in two different places. Most people just cycle through the "new posts" button, so they'll see both of your posts at the same time (and FLBettaCouple or one of the other moderators will probably combine the two posts when they see them, anyway)
It sounds like this is a decent plant bulb.
For future use, Drs Foster and Smith (drsfostersmith.com) have a large range of light bulbs.

Radcliffe

What I have been looking at with bulbs is the number of watts for the gallons of my tanks. So, your 20 watt bulb for a 30 gallon tank is less than one watt per gallon. Especially if you have a bright room for the tank, that should be good for growing the low light plants like Java Ferns and Java Moss, and more.

When I wanted more than that, I found I needed to start looking at compact florescent bulbs and fixtures. Those are not sold at most local pet stores because they are expensive, and most people don't see to go with plants that need high light. I got mine on ebay. :-)

http://www.fishlore.com/Forum/index....8073#msg108073
In this post I show progress photos of my tank. First picture is with the type of bulb you have, second a month later, third a month later after having added compact florescent bulbs.

--R

Isabella

On the top of the box in which your lightbulb was packed, there is a yellow "K" letter. Over that letter there is a number. Can you tell me what the number is?

Dasha

Ok, here it goes: (all for 24")

Flora GLO 2800K (that's the one I bought)
Life GLO 5700K
Power GLO 18000K
Aqua GLO 18000K
Sun Glo 4200

What do you think? the 2800K doesn't sound like much but that was the one recommended for planted aquariums. Maybe they assume you have to bulbs and the Flora GLO is only a supplement. However, I only have room for one bulb.

Which one should I use?

Isabella

I have 2 Hagen's 24" (20W) bulbs: (1) Life-Glo and (2) Sun-Glo.

On my boxes it says that Life-Glo is 6,700K and Sun-Glo is 4,200K. A while ago, I bought Flora-Glo too for one of my tanks, and when I turned the lightbulb on it looked so ugly and weak that I returned it. In my opinion, the best standard lightbulb from Hagen for planted tanks is the one that has 6,700K (Life-Glo).

I don't go by the names of the lightbulbs, but by their Kelvin temperatures. If I were you, I'd get the Life-Glo. But I understand if you'll want to keep the one you already have, it's up to you. Although, once again, 2,800K is too low in my opinion. Also, remember not to go over 10,000K because lightbulbs over 10,000K have blue spectrum in them, and blue spectrum causes a lot of algae in your tank.

Like I said in the other thread, if you have a 20W lightbulb over your 33 gallon tank, that will give you 0.6 watts of light per 1 gallon of water. It's calculated like this: 20 watts / 33 gallons = 0.6 watts per gallon. This is generally too little light for planted tanks. But if you can't get more lightbulbs, and your fixture is standard, you have no other choice but to have only 20 watts of light.

There are low, medium, and high light plants. Get only low light and easy to grow plants such as Anubias, Java Fern, Java Moss, Water Sprite, and Hornwort. I cannot guarantee to you that they'll all grow well under 0.6 wpg, but you can definitely try it.

In my 30 gallon tank, I have a 20W Life-Glow lightbulb, but I don't have plants in that tank anymore. The plants I had were medium and low-light, and they withered away with time. But they grew MUCH BETTER under the Life-Glo lightbulb than under other lightbulbs.

In my 75 gallon tank I have 2 Coralife compact fluorescent lightbulbs, and they give me a total of 1.73 watts per gallon of light. The spectrum of this bulb is also 6,700K and the plants grow very well under this spectrum. In my experience, 6.700K is very good for plant growth. And it looks very nice over the tank.

Read my reply in this thread again: http://www.fishlore.com/Forum/index.php?topic=11951.0

atmmachine816

I also have a life-glow in my 29 gallon tank. I noticed a big difference when I put this bulb in when I took my grandpa's old bulb out and the plants grew much faster compared to what they were before. I have crypts, hornwort, amazon swords (surprisingly they grow well) and anarchis. Like Isabella said you don't have to change the bulb, but write down when you got this one and replace it in a year, all bulbs should be replaced roughly every year.

Isabella

Atm, I love the way the 6,700K lightbulbs look over a planted tank. They give your tank such a natural look. That's why I love them. I don't like the blue ones because they look fake. The blue ones look good only over saltwater reef tanks.

Dasha, look at the hues that the 6,700K lightbulbs can give to a tank:

atmmachine816

I agree, I bought one once for my 5.5 when it was fw and I had to return it, it just didn't look right. Isabella is that an updated picture of your 75?

Isabella

Atm, no. Didn't take any pictures of the 75 gallon tank since then. I have removed some of the plants already, and my Vallisnerias are very tall now. But my Sagittarias have not spread all over the floor yet and they look so slow-growing. I need to get more plants. I'll take some pictures after I've gotten some more plants. The tank looks too empty on the right side now. The left side is pretty overtaken by the Vallisnerias, lol.

atmmachine816

O ok, well I'll keep an eye out for some pictures in a bit then.

Isabella

Dasha, I have merged this thread with the other one from the "Plants" section.

Dasha

Thank you so much, I'll go exchange the Flora Glo for Life Glo. I am so mad that Hagen makes it so difficult and misleading on their packaging.

Atmmachine, I have a amazon sword too, I didn't really know what it was when I bought it a week ago. What do you do to take care of it? I read I should use Nourish tabs for feeding through the roots. What is your routine? I'm hopeful it will grow, since your set up is similar to mine. Do you have a picture of your aquarium?

Thanks.
Dasha

atmmachine816

I recently replaced my bulb since it was a year old and my swords have started growing better again. I don't do much basically all I do is every other week I use flora-pride by tetra (plant fertiliser) and I don't gravel vacuum by the roots at all. They really are supposed to have more light but I transferred them over from my 5.5 when I converted it to saltwater. In a month or two I'm either upgrading my lights to t-5 or adding another t-8 striplight to increase my light to more around Isabella's because a 29 gallon is 18" deep and the light doesn't penetrate well. I also leave my lights on 8 hours a day. So my routine is:
-Change 5 gallons of water weekly, just gravel vacuum the top of the gravel not near the roots.
-add 1 capful of flora-pride by tetra every other week (enough for 20 gallons of water)
-Change filter media as needed

I don't do a whole lot with the tank, I keep it pretty simple and I don't have any problems.

Here's an older picture of the tank, I have to upload some more pics soon so I'll take a new one, I'm down to one fake plant now. With the low light plants grow slow. I think Isabella had some amazon swords in her 30 but where eaten.

Dasha

your tank looks beautiful, I love the urn (where did you get it, I only saw tacky pink and purple ones in Petco).

Where is the amazon swrod in the picture? How more ignorant could I be.... :

My sword is in the middle in the back right under the lamp. Would that help? I can see that the sides and corners are "in the shade".

Please correct my assumption: As in gardening the light is not equally distributed throughout the tank. If I want a well lit tank all over, I'd have to have 1-3 watt per gallon and the right temperature of the bulb (I've settled on 6,700K). However, since I'm limited to 20watt, can I grow plants in the "full sun" area under the bulb and not plant in the "shade area" in the corner, sides and very front of the tank?

Thanks,
Dasha

atmmachine816

Thanks, I'm not happy with it yet, once I get some more light I'll be happy because the plants grow really slow now.

I made the urn myself, it's for my bristlenoses to mate in.

there are two amazon swords in the middle, the bright green plants and then there's one in the front right. When I take an updated pic I'll circle them when I upload them.

Yes the light isn't equally distributed. For me anarchis and crypts do well on the sides. yes I would grow your swords or other little bit more demanding plants more in the middle and put crypts and anubias on the sides.

Isabella

Atm, well, I took some pictures today They're in my personal blog and in the "Freshwater Pictures" section

atmmachine816

Thanks I saw them

Here's a full tank shot. Then the other is of two amazon swords that came off the plant I bought (plantlets ) that I cut off and replanted. The other plants by them are crypts. The third picture is of the original plant that I bought diseased and have slowly nursed it back after it lost all of it's leaves.