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Setting Up Planted Tank Problem With Lighting

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mattb22

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Ok so I'm starting to get my tank set up to be heavily planted, one problem.... my lighting. I have around a 15 gallon tank (24"x12"x12"), I have 1 15 watt bulb and another on the way which would make a total of 30 watts... which would only be around 2wpg :( im looking for around 3-4 wpg but have no more room to place lighting... Can anyone help me out with this 1?
 
If you ask me 2WPG will be fine, depends on what sort of plants you plan on growing though I guess.

The only way I can think of to get round this would be to ditch the Flourescent T-8's (presume you use T-8's) and go with a different style of lighting such as Halide.
 
Could I have a heavily planted tank with just 2wpg and co2 pumped in through a nutrafin natural CO2?
also would it be ok to have a third t8 bulb stacked in the middle/ on top of the other 2 bulbs and would its still add up more wpg?

Thx for all the advice mattb22 :)
 
Yeah it could be heavily planted with 2WPG but like I say it depends on what plants you plan on growing. Some plants require more lighting to do well than others. Usually red plants and foregound carpeting plants for example.

Personally I would not bother putting a bulb on top of two others I doubt it would do much good to be honest. Is there no room what so ever to squeeze another bulb in the hood?

The nutrafin will do just fine on a small tank such as yours.
 
Hmmm my hood has only 2 slots for t8 bulbs and only a glass part big enough to show 2 bulbs light through. I could maybe do a lil diy so by cutting some more plastic out and replacing with more glass, or i could however save up for a new hood but how much would this set me back.

Thx mattb22
 
If I were you I would see if I could fit another bulb somehow then just get a bulb and another starter and fix it in place to the hood. Thats basically what I did.

Show us a pic of the hood if you can so we can maybe suggest a method of doing this.
 
I have found most lids are no good if you want good lighting i did a diy job to get 3 tubes above my tank and binned the lid, so i think you better get some tools out :D
 
OK here is the hood
 

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Could you not just attach a third tube at the 'top' of the hood, top as seen in the picture you posted? There would seem ample space there?

Sam
 
Thats a pretty weird hood if you ask me, I would probably just make one myself its a simple enough concept and their is bound to be lots of guides and so on around.
 
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