Plant Id Please

the lfs had it labeled as anaracis (sp?) but im not sure. so what is it and what requirements does it have?

Cabomba Caroliniana, it needs pretty high light to grow well otherwise its not too fussy.

all right, well right now its under 1.5 wpg. is that enough or do i need to get a second light? if it helps it is directly under the bulb.

If T5 or PC then you have enough light. If T8 then it should be OK but no promises. It can grow in low light but only directly under the lamp. Yours looks like it si geting enough light otherwise it would be a lot less full with more gaps between each leaf stem.

ANdy

lower light also means the leaves will not stay on for long as they would with high light therefore it can be a messy plant.

hmmm, i guess ill have to get another light now then wolnt i? ill post a picture of the whole tank to show yall just how much light it is getting to help better get an idea of what im dealing with. the bulb is a T8, 15 watt, Coralife 50/50. i didnt get it from it here but if you want here's a profile of the bulb. clicking on the "more information" button will give you the spectrum analysis.

[URL="http/www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod...amp;pcatid=3794"]http/www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod...amp;pcatid=3794[/URL]

What is the volume of your tank and how deep is it? Deeper tanks (18 inches and deeper) often do better with T5HO tubes rather than T8s, even if the wattages are similar, as T5HO lighting is more intense and so has better light penetration.

As to that tube, I would change it for a plain daylight tube, somewhere between about 6000k-7000k. The 50/50 tubes are aimed more at the marine hobby.

As to increasing your lighting, take care not to go much higher than about 2 watts per gallon, higher than this and you are going to start needing to maintain stable levels of CO2, fertiliser dosing regimes etc, with a lot more pruning. You could also do with putting a flow pump or powerhead in there. Those hang on filters don't do a lot for circulation but do do a good job of driving off the CO2 needed by your plants. You could probably get the lighting you need from a single linear T5HO 6500k lamp to be honest.

Oh and one last thing, before you increase your lighting at all, put a lot more plants in there! Up the lighting with what you have now and algae is going to thrive. Ideally you need much denser planting if you are going to increase the lighting, even if the plants you stick in aren't really to your taste some extra fast growing stems will help to fill out your tank and help reduce the risk of algae going nuts on you.

Ade

its a 10 gallon, 12" deep... 11" not counting the substrate.

Starfishpower said:

its a 10 gallon, 12" deep... 11" not counting the substrate.

Click to expand...

T8s should be fine then.

Ade

do you think that one light will be fine or should i get another one?

One light is fine. However if you wanted better growth than add another light. That in turn will drive up nutrient and CO2 demand though.
One light is fine though, so if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

great. one light it is then. thats also good since i want to start breeding cheery shrimp in there and i think the general recommendation is a 10 gallon with one fluorescent bulb. im sure i could get away with 2 but like you said, if it aint broke dont fix it.