Julienlore

I have been cycling my 20 Gallon tank for 10 days now and reading as much as possible in between school and other activities.

I have a 20 gallon Marineland aquarium. It came with a hood and light but the light is only 15W (I think). Part of the reason I wanted an aquarium was to grow live plants and create a "natural" environment. It is clear from my readings that I need to increase my lighting capability.

Does Marineland (perfecto?) make a hood for this tank (24" wide) with two light bulbs? Are there DIY ways of achieving higher lighting magnitude?

Any advice appreciated,

Julien Boudreau

Gozer_1

Here is a twin tube light by All-Glass Aquarium, very similar to the Perfecto

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/produc...2&pcatid=13612

That is just the right light I'd say. That would be 1.5 watts per gallon. 1-2 watts is recommended. 1.5 is just right.

Julienlore

Are most hoods and ballasts standard? Can I just get the light ballast to fit on my Marineland hood?

Thanks,

Julien

Isabella

Most fixtures you get with your tanks are standard. Unfortunately standard lighting is not enough for growing plants.

How long is your 20 gallon tank? And how many watts total do the double fixtures that you're considering have? Also, how long are the lightbulbs you're considering?

Julienlore

Tank is 24". I don't have any lights in mind. I would settle for a 2 light design that fits on my hood.

J

Isabella

OK, then. I'd suggest a fixture with lightbulbs that are 24" long (more or less). This will give you a light distribution from one end of the tank to another. For a low-light tank, you should have anywhere between 1.0 - 2.0 wpg (but not at 2.0 and above) of lighting. At 2.0 and above, you'll need CO2 injections and in effect this won't be a low-light tank any longer. If you want a tank with CO2 injections and higher light, I suggest you seek advice on PlantGeek.net as I personally know nothing about CO2 injections. Going back to your lightbulbs, choose a double fixture with such total wattage that will give you 1.0 - 2.0 wpg (watts per gallon) of lighting. You calculate the wpg value by dividing the total wattage of your lighting over the size of your tank (in gallons). I'd also recommend a lighting spectrum of 7,600K or so. You can choose something slightly higher or lower than 7,600K.

If you want a low-light tank, please read: http://www.fishlore.com/fishforum/aquarium-plants/11697-general-guide-low-light-planted-tanks.html in its entirety. Here, you'll find all info on lighting and substrate that you need to know about when setting up a planted tank. Good luck

MrWaxhead

Isabella is right on the wpg front, once you get over 2 wpg c02 and ferts are a must or you will have a tank full of algae. This is because your plants will basically try to photosynthesize at a much faster rate due to lighting, but they will essential starve themselves from a lack of c02 and ferts that they would need to continue photosynthesizing at the rate your light was trying to push them at. And once your plants start to starve they will stop growing, now you will have a huge amount of unused up light with nothing to soak it up, that is except algae it will be all over the unused lighting.

You can grow very healthy plants in low to med lighting with no c02, but there will be many plants that will not grow at all in those settings, pretty much any red plant will not grow or not turn red, and pretty much any carpeting plant will fail or get to tall and stringy. But a healthy low tech low light tank will also be more forgiving for error, what I mean by that is because your photosynthesizing is slower the break out time for algae etc kicks in much slower, ie if your going to get it, it will occur much slower. In a high tech high light tank, if something goes out of balance the algae will hit you very hard and very fast if something goes out of balance.

In a high light tank, you basically have to do the following,

Have a very good amount of plants, the more the better and with a good amount of fast growing species.

You have to keep a stable c02 if you fail to keep a steady 20 to 30 ppm of c02, YOU WILL GET ALGAE.

If your plants get short on nutrients, again YOU WILL GET ALGAE.

The easiest way to a healthy tank in highlighting is steady c02, and EI dosing. What you basically do in a EI dosing routine, is put in more nutrients then your plants will need NPK and micros etc, and on a weekly basis do a 50% water change to reset the nutrient load. That will ensure your plants get the nutrients they need, and the 50% change keeps your water clean and resets the nutrient load so there is none left over for algae. A high light, stable c02 and EI dosed tank is normally completely free of algae and can grow any plant you desire and safe for your fish and normally stunning looking. But they are ALOT of work, you are dosing something pretty much daily, and you can't miss a water change of 50% a week ever or the excess nutrients WILL get used, but used by algae once your plants can't tank anymore.

If you want I can give you some great links on EI dosing. I EI dose all my nursery tanks that I grow my plants in, but I don't EI dose my main tank atm as I am running a bit of a test on it at the moment to get a better understanding of what nutrients my fish and my water provide, to see what nutrients I come up short on and learn to only dose those nutrients to the level they are needed.

I personally run c02 on all my tanks though, even mid light tanks (they just require way less ferts), as I am a firm believer on its effects to plants health and in turn fish health. There are dangers to c02, ie c02 tank dumps in pressurized (caused by letting your tank get to empty and the contents dump and gas the fish) and over flowing canisters in DIY etc. But those are very easily avoided, I never let my c02 tanks get low, when they start to come down in pressure I change them, for the few dollars in gas I waste thats left over in the tank its worth it. I would rather lose the few bucks in gas then kill my fish. And on my DIY c02 tanks I always use a champagne yeast and brown sugar, and a safe mixture so its not attacking the sugars to aggressive and foaming back up the line, I would rather run more then one DIY with less agressive mixes to get enough c02 then one real strong one that could foam. I also use a overflow bottle and any crud that trys to come up the line goes to that bottle and not my fish tank.

Best of luck and I hope you find a balance that is right for you and your nature look you are looking for. For you and your fish that is

Julienlore

Thanks for all the information!

What I'm really asking is how do I physically add more lights? Do I purchase a new hood? Are hoods standard siz to fit most aquariums? With the Marineland hood, is there a ballast that holds two lights that would fit on my hood or do I have to purchasethe entire hood?

I'm working on my CO2 fertilizer right now. 2L bottle with 1L bottle attached to it and purchased a diffuser from LFS.

Thanks,

Julien

MrWaxhead

Personally what I would do is ditch your hood completely, and get a glass top for your tank. You can buy the 24" glass tops with a hinge at fish stores (they are very cheap), then put on a light something like this.

24" PC 65w, will give you 3.25 wpg for $55. Power compact has a rating of 1.04 lumen to watts for a true rating of 3.38 wpg
http://www.bigalsonline.com/BigAlsUS...pactlight1x65w

Or like the following, I would lean this route as t5 bulbs are cheap, and the mix of 6500k and the colourmax full spectrum bulbs, it leaves a very nice colour for plant and fish viewing, and you get more control of even lighting over your tank, lessons shaded areas from bigger plants or scape. In this route you get four 14Watt bulbs for 56Watts or 2.8 wpg, but T5 normal output are rated at 1.37 lumen to watt for a true wpg rating of 3.836 wpg. Each hood is $35 for a total of $70 for both hoods. And they have little sliders off the ends to clip on the ends of your tank.
http://www.bigalsonline.com/BigAlsUS...lestriplight24

You can buy replacement hoods to that have dual bulbs, but t12s are not very efficient and bulky. And you would only have 30 watts of light for 1.5 wpg, which is fine as well depends on what kind of tank your going for. Replacement hoods on this site are $41
http://www.bigalsonline.com/BigAlsUS...iplight24black

Also if your going DIY c02 I would strongly say use champayne yeast and brown sugar, its a much more stable mixture and less likely to foam up and lasts longer.

Here is a site for measuring c02 based of ph and kh in your tank, you ideally want to aim for about 25ppm c02.
http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_plant_co2chart.htm
There is a spot half way down the page where you enter you tanks ph and kh in either degrees or ppm. IE my tank is 6.4 ph with a kh of 2.5 degrees for a c02 level of 29.858 ppm, which is right on the high end and perfect for not getting algae in my tank. Going over 30ppm is harmfull to your fish, so you want to stay under 30ppm, going under 20ppm is beneficial to algae in a high light tank, so you really have to test alot when you first start your c02 running and adjust your mix accordingly, ie less yeast in your mix for a lower but longer lasting c02 mix, more yeast for a stronger faster mix. But you have to becarefull going stronger, as you can over do it and back fill your tank with yeast. I would go with two units of weaker mix rather then one strong if needed. On a 20g one average mix should be fine though.

Good luck, I hope you end up with a healthy happy tank free of algae, with smiling fish hehe. Oh and PS I didn't price out the cheapest source for lights, I just quickly found some examples of lighting that could work for you.

MrWaxhead

Oh and I just noticed in your post, c02 is not truely a fert, its a source of carbon which plants thrive on. In high light tanks with c02 you still need ferts,

The seachem line is great, you can either dose with flourish with has all the macros, or does the N P K and iron on there own bottle for each macro (i prefer the own there own method) both are good though, and you also need micros, and seachem trace is a excellent source for micros. And there is also flourish excel which is a carbon addition.

Or if you want to go a dry fert route sites like rexgriggs are great for dry ferts, and much much cheaper then premixed ferts.
http://www.bestaquariumregulator.com/ferts.html

Julienlore

Thanks for all the great information!

I like the idea of the glass hood. Does it have any allowance in the back for heater wire and my AquaClear filter?

I'm really only looking for a 30W system, giving approx. 1.5W per gallon. The plants I have so far are low to moderate lighting. I don't think I want to get any high light requirement plants.

As for the CO2 I've been following some of the popular DIY links. I bought a diffuser from the LFS.

As for yeast, I culture my own. I brew fairly large batches of beer from scratch and figured yeast culturing would only make sense.

Thanks,

Julien

MrWaxhead

yes the glass hoods basically have a hinge for two long parts, and they have about a 2 inch gap at the back for hob filters and heaters etc, and plastic inserts to fill the rest of the area in etc. And yes cultured brew yeast would probably be fantastic, just watch out how much you use, to much and it will attach the sugars to fast, and come up the lines. But you brew so you would know that

Julienlore

Thanks,

I use a yeast calculater to determine the amount of yeast needed to ferment a given solution FAST, so I'll probably have to cut down.

The two LFS don't carry any of these lights. I'll look for an online store in Canada to see if they don't have the same lights and hoods.

Thanks,

J

MrWaxhead

The links I gave you have a Canadian site bigalsonline.ca instead of .com