luna 13

Hi everyone
I have a 38 gallon tank with low light plants.Right now I have four light bulbs they are marineland 10 watt 5100 k. My question is will this be enough light for my plants? Of what I been reading this is not enough wattage.
Thank you for your replies
Nora.

peacemaker92

Hi luna,

Getting more wattage would be better. It also depends what kind of plants you plan to keep. If you plan to get low light plants, you wouldn't need too much light.

kribensis keeper

well it depends i think personally on the plant itself if the plants look healthy and have very good colouring then it must be enough u can also search the plants that you have on the internet i hope this helps if not try asking you local aqarium or pet store

luna 13

I already have low light plants and they don't grow much and some turn yellow. I guess I have to get more wattage. thank you for your replies.

harpua2002

What kind of plants do you have now, and what kind of plants would you like to keep in the future? What kind of substrate do you have? Do you use any fertilizers or CO2? Sorry for all the questions, but it might help us to recommend some lighting for your setup.

pepetj

Leaves turning yellow can be a sign of bio-available iron deficiency. Are you feeding your plants? If not I suggest you read about the needs of your low light plant species.

I would consider at least upgrading your lamps. Be careful to match the specification of the electronic ballast. You seem to have the small F10T5 (normal output) lamps. I have seen Marineland 10W T5NO rated at 10,000K (For Eclipse tanks I think).

If possible, aim at using a mixture of 6,700K, 10,000K, and 18,000K. 5,100K is not ideal for photosynthesis.

Pepetj
Santo Domingo

Regal

You have over 4 watts per gallon which is pretty high. Another thing to consider would be the shape of your tank. If it's tall then less light is getting to your plants at the bottom.

I would get two 6,700k and two 10,000k. I have that combination on one of my tanks and it looks bright but with a yellowish glow. If you go with all 10,000k it would look more bright white. The tough part is getting the right balance between light, co2 and nutrients. If one is lacking more than the others you won't get good growth. With high lighting you need more co2 and nutrients. I'm trying to master that myself and if co2 systems didn't cost $300 I'd be a lot closer

pepetj

I figure you miscalculated the WPG in the first paragraph. He has a 38gal tank (let's round up to 40 for ease of calculations). 4 x 10W = 40W. 40W/40gals = 1WPG.

As for the info in the second paragraph I agree with you since I like that combination too. Striking a balance between, temperature, light, CO2, macro and micronitrients I figure is our work in progress, as most things we do in fishkeeping.

Regal

uh oops. It looks clear to me now. I must have been stumped on that difficult math.

thanks Pepe