CO2 is it really needed?

[Doggfather]

The thitan moon sand clouds up your water> I washed mine 4-5 times and my tank was still cloudy, but it went away after a day.

no matter how many times you wash sand, it will never be crystal clear when you put it in the water

and...

Dolores, are you getting two of the exact same fluro. tubes, or going for a mix?

 

[DOLORES]

mix a fluro and a moonlight one i think... wait...cuz if i turn on the lights at day..... it will turn on the blue moon light too...mmm well as i sed i'll come up with somethin.

 

[konrad05]

I was in the same situation as you are with my old 29 gallon. I had only double light strip and choice of two bulbs. So I bought the Life-Glo bulb and a flora-glo. The combination worked beautiful and the plants grew really well. The life-glo has a higher kelvin and the flora-glo has a lower kelvin so you get a nice warm color overall. If you're not worried about plants, then your combination is fine too. Good luck.

 

[utahfish]

i bought some of that moon sand it was 20 bucks 20 pounds,what a rip. i went down to home depot and got 50 pounds of playground sand for 4 bucks to put in my other tank and it just as nice. if you dont want that sand you can always get pool filtre sand which comes in 100 pound bags for about 10 bucks. but usually is only white. as for your plant questions. i have a 29 gal planted tank. i have some micro sword some java moss,java fern, money wort, amazon sword, bannana plant,a couple of red plants that i cnat remember their names and some bacoppa. it's all growing great especially the bannana plant. i've never used any co2 i just have some liquid fertilizer. the only problem i have is some hair algea but it seems to be getting better.

 

[Colin_BC]

I just posted a reply on another post in this forum that could be of use to you in regards to CO2 and lighting. I have the identical tank as yours. Here's a link to the post.
As for the compact's being expensive, that's if you buy the ones packaged for aquarium use or above 42W. A bathroom strip light bar that holds 3 or 4 bulbs costs $10. The 23W compact fluour's are the best bang for the buck at $6 ea at wallyworld or casadepot. I've never seen the 60's or higher, but I can imagine those being very pricey for one bulb.

I wish all this had dawned on me before I spent close to a couple hundred on a couple canopies and good bulbs (which still only gave 60W), but I guess education isn't cheap!

Colin