Need Help On Lighting For My Tank

[crago1990]

hello everyone, ive had problems with plants since ive gone with planted tanks and i believe its to do with the lighting. i have the standerd lighting that came with the tank. im dont have any fancy plants just the easy plants. tank is a 95L not sure of dimentions at the mo. But would a light unit with t5's in 8w with 3 bulbs be ok? seems pretty cheap! heres the link to the item on ebay... http/www.ebay.co.uk/itm/280725931959?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649.
Let me know if it ok or if there is any others out there??

thank you.

 

[gatorsean]

thats pretty low lighting. you'll be very limited to with your plant choices, but it can be done. bumping up the lighting to say 35-40 watts of t5 would open up your choices.

 

[crago1990]

thanks for the reply... yeah i was thinking it was cheap so might not be good enough. How much will a t5 light unit with about 30w? has anyone got any links to any?

 

[Nettley]

I dont no anything about lighting but i was looking at that light unit but the bigger one.. so would that be alright it im not going for my plants?

Thanks Nettley

 

[crago1990]

also found this ... http/www.ebay.co.uk/itm/T5-Aquarium-Fish-Tank-Overhead-Lighting-Two-Tube-System-/180710080304?_trksid=p4340.m1374&_trkparms=algo%3DPI.WATCH%26its%3DC%252BS%26itu%3DUCC%26otn%3D5%26ps%3D63%26clkid%3D5523640335463342885 seems to be higher wattige. would this help my plant growth?

 

[tanksalot]

Can I ask what you want out of this?

Because I looked at your latest link and the lowest powered light I could see was 48 watts of T5 with reflectors, and if you put that over your 25 gallon tank you are absolutely going to need CO2 of some kind and fertilisers to grow plants successfully.

If you want to keep to low tech, the first light you linked to would be more appropriate - 24 watts of T5 over 25 gallons should grow easy plants no bother at all - though I would check the width of your tank because that light has a max width of 42cm and I suspect that your tank is rather wider than that.

 

[crago1990]

Can I ask what you want out of this?

Because I looked at your latest link and the lowest powered light I could see was 48 watts of T5 with reflectors, and if you put that over your 25 gallon tank you are absolutely going to need CO2 of some kind and fertilisers to grow plants successfully.

If you want to keep to low tech, the first light you linked to would be more appropriate - 24 watts of T5 over 25 gallons should grow easy plants no bother at all - though I would check the width of your tank because that light has a max width of 42cm and I suspect that your tank is rather wider than that.

thanks for the reply! yeah i want to get a light to help plant growth. only want to grow the basic plants but at the moment im having no luck. everyone said that java fern and anubais and a few stem plants would grow easy but in my tank ive had no luck i have dirted the bottom of my tank which made a difference with stem plants but then the plants just got smaller and smaller untill they looked rubbish. so if im using dirt and i add Seachem Flourish once a week the only thing im guessing that is letting me down is the light that came with my tank? would really love some help to try and get some plants growing. how come with the latest link i posted i would need to use co2? ( i would use co2 if i had too but havent researched it and also seems quite expensive, and i see all these tanks with amazing plant growth with out co2) and with the first kink i wouldnt need co2 how come? and cheers for the heads up with the width ill have to have a look at that!

 

[tanksalot]

I'm going by the watts-per-gallon rule which is what we use to get a rough idea of how much light plants are receiving. The higher the light, the more plants are forced to metabolise, and the more we have to provide to allow them to keep up with the demands of the light.

The light in the first link would provide a shade under 1 watt per gallon, but as T5 lamps are more powerful than the lamps for which the rule was created, it would actually be more than that. With that level of lighting you would easily grow plants like mosses, swords, Anubias, Java ferns and crypts, and you probably wouldn't need to add CO2 because the likelihood is that there would be enough naturally in the water to meet their requirements (you might have to add some fertilisers, but that depends on other factors).

The light in the second link (the 48 watt one) would be giving a shade under 2 watts per gallon, but being T5 means that it's effectively more than that, and with reflectors possibly 50% more. At that level of lighting you are squarely in the realms of high tech and would need CO2 (and fertilisers) to meet the plants' demands for growth.

Hope that explains it somewhat

By the way, you haven't said what the lighting is that you currently have - how many watts, type of lamp, age of lamps (they may just be too old to be much use). The more info you give about your set up, the more help we can give

 

[crago1990]

thanks yeah im kind of understanding what you mean now. im not sure on the light i currently have its built into the hood of my tank. i have the elite 95 tank and on the hood it seys 220-240v 50hz 1x20w max. and the bulb i currently have is a 20w t8 aqua glow bulb. i no i need a new bulb had this one too long but wasnt getting any results out of it when it was new. hopefully ull be able to know how good/rubbish my light is from those details.

 

[tanksalot]

Okay. 0.8 watts per gallon isn't a lot, and you might not have much joy with stem plants (I wouldn't bother with those to be honest), but it shouldn't be impossible to grow anubias, crypts, java ferns and moss, albeit slowly.

Tell me, did you give your plants time to adjust to your tank conditions before deciding they were a lost cause? I only ask because plants can experience "melt" when introduced to a new tank, whereby they lose most if not all their leaves and look dreadful for a while before starting to grow new leaves. If you didn't, then it may be worth getting a new lamp (definitely if your current one is more than a year old) and trying again with the species I mentioned.

If that doesn't appeal, then look for replacement lighting that will give you in the range of 1-1.5 watts per gallon, and that should allow you to grow the above, and more.

 

[crago1990]

yeah a few of them did melt. but never really came back im guessing due to not enough light. i have had a long tall plant called vallis or something like that and its been about the only plant that has survied in my tank. but its ment to grow long but due to my light it grew new shoots all the time but only ever reached a few inches. so didnt look great but it did kind of grow. well today i went out and brought a new bulb for my tank and im going to give a few plants a go again. but if it doesnt work i will have to look into a new lighting unit. have you got any ideas on a good light fitting? thanks for all the help btw starting to understand whats gone wrong alot more now.

 

[tanksalot]

I'm a bit rubbish on the hardware side of things unfortunately so I wouldn't want to recommend anything particular. You could ask in the hardware section, or if you fancied DIYing it, maybe something like this?

Meanwhile, if you're going with your current set up again, you can attach your java fern and anubias high in the tank if you want to (they shouldn't be planted in the substrate btw or they will rot) so that they are closer to the light. If you're trying crypts, swords or vallis, make sure you have a decent depth of substrate (a couple of inches) where you're planting them as I've found they grow better when they can get their roots properly down. Give 'em 8 hours or so of light, and you should see some results. Good luck with it