[Shotgun]

just tore down my 10g because my only inhabitant in it died from anchor worm and since it is a parasite, i decided to do a tear down, but just the thought of having only one tank currently up and running makes me sad. (my 55g) *frown

Im leaning on making it a fully planted tank. Never done that before. I have a few things planned for it though. However my question is this: I have the standard 18'' aquarium T5 15 watt light. I dont have the budget to go out and buy a new light housing. Would this 15 watt light do? I mean, i would probably be growing some anubias, dwarf hairgrass, crypts, etc. As for substrate, is straight flourite alright sufficient?

Thanks all.

 

[WhiteGloveAquatics]

1.5 wpg, the beginning of mid lighting.


I found petsmarts topfin hoods have two socket style bulbs in them, the little tube lights are 15w apiece, can easily go 3wpg cheap.

I turned my 15g into a plant only tank, cept I had to "save" some fry for the wife and kids( over 700 fry in one night and she was worried about em all getting eaten) so they are growing out in there for the next week then its back to plants only, a few MTS and maybe shrimp.


I use straight flourite, its perfectly fine to use, very iron rich though, I started dosing liquid ferts and with the higher wattage NO Co2 and the flourite, ive got anubias growing 8-10 leaves a week and crypts that have exploded.

 

[susankat]

With smaller tanks like that the watt per gal rule basically goes out the window. 2 watts per gal would be considered low light actually. I had 4 watts on one of my 10's and grew lots of plants and didn't have to much of an algae issure.

The main thing that you want to look at is lumens on the bulb itself. It needs to run between 6500 - 10,000k. Most bulbs from lfs and walmart etc are going to be less than that unless you get into higher $ lights.

 

[beaslbob]

On my 10g I use 4-6 anacharis, 4-6 vals, 4 small potted plants and a single amazon sword.

I use 1" peat moss, 1" play sand, 1" pc select or aquarium gravel in that order. Wet each level and clean then add the next.

I then set the plants in the substrate

then fill the aquarium with water poured over a dish.

let set a week

add a single male platy or a single tetra.

Don't add food for a week.

add a couple of female platys or 4 mor tetras.

feed very lightly.

lighting 2 11-15w pig tails. or a single 15w tube is fine.

should have an excellent tank for many years.


my .02

 

[jrodriguez]

I just made a planted 20 gallon community tank with a couple of amazon swords as well as a couple other plants.i have 2 26 watt bulbs with the hood that the tank came with and the plants are doing well

 

[Shotgun]

so any other ideas for lighting? a website or something? thanks.