GouramiGuy

I have a standard 15 watt fluorescent light on my 20 gallon tall. I just got some hornwart. I am wondering if low light plants like that will be able to survive.

Butters

hey, you are in the same exact boat as I was. I bought some low-light plants thinking that they would grow just fine becuase they were "low-light" The only thing I got to grow was floating anacharis (and that didn't really grow a whole lot) See how it does, I moved all the plants I had to my 10 gallon with 20 watts of light and they are doing great with regular gravel. But if you want to keep live plants you are going to have to upgrade. I'm in the process of upgrading my 20 gallon tank too.

sirdarksol

Butters is probably right, but this partly depends on ambient light in the room the aquarium is in.
My living room gets a lot of reflected light, and I've had success with plants in tanks that shouldn't have been able to support anything.

GouramiGuy

Butters,
I would like to know what the plants will do with not enough ligh: will they turn brown and die or will they just stop growing? I'm not really going for the underwater forest look so plants that live and look good , but don't grow I am ok with. I'm not wild about upgrading my lights right now. Maybe you could provide me with links of that one plant that grew? --thanks

Sirdarksol,
I have my tank in my bedroom away from the windows and it doesn't get much reflected light

Butters

well, the plants didnt grow any new leaves and my crypts started to melt away. Well, you have about .75 watts per gallon, not much can grow in that. Try some java fern or java moss, possibly some anubias. Don't expect rapid growth though!

GouramiGuy

thanks for the quick reply I will see what happens with the hornwort and maybe get some of those plants you mentioned.

GouramiGuy

would a 15 watt daylight bulb be better than a soft white bulb??

kacie

I am in the same boat, too. I added Eco-Complete and got some "low-light" plants so I hope they don't die. I am also leaving on a regular lamp next to the tank. I hope that it helps.

mathas

It depends on what spectrum of light each specific bulb puts out, but in general, a daylight bulb would probably be marginally more conducive to plant growth. Whether or not you'd notice a difference at .75WPG is unknown, but it couldn't hurt to try.

GouramiGirl1221

I just upgraded my bulbs this past weekend and my plants seem to be doing better even though I didn't get any more wattage. I've got 30 watts in my 55 gal, so that's barely over 1/2 a watt per gallon, but the new lights have a better spectrum on them as mathas was talking about. I have Coralife bulbs now. Keep in mind my tank gets quite a bit of natural light from windows as well. The plant I have that's doing the best right now is anacharis...I've gotten two new shoots off of each of my plants that are about 6" a piece.

EDIT: Here's a link to that bulb: http://www.petsmart.com/product/inde...ductId=2753937

GouramiGuy

what about incandescent light? I could put all my plants in my ten gallon instead and that gets 50 watts from two incandescent bulbs.