Thinking about a lighting upgrade...

[lovebuzz]

So I'm thinking about upgrading my lighting in my ten gallon. I had 2 11 watt power compact fluorescents on there, but one broke My vallis started dying almost right away and I don't think it's gonna last very long. My other plants are amazon sword, egeria densa, and java fern. They seem to be ok.

So I have two options

I could get these:
http/www.homedepot.ca/escalate/store/Det...35:018980323951

A 3 pack of 15 watts, for 13.78 after tax

Or I could get two of these:
http/www.homedepot.ca/escalate/store/Det...35:018980323951

A 23 watt twister, two would be 18.35 after tax

Option 1

The 3 pack would give me 3 watts per gallon (and yes I know it is less on tanks as small as this ten gallon), and I would have a spare bulb.

Option 2.

This would give me 4.6 watts per gallon ( again, I know it is less), but is costlier, and I think this may be overkill. I'm not sure though.


So my question is, is option 2 overkill? Which option would you go for? This is a ten gallon tank...

Any help is greatly appreciated

 

[Yenko]

I use 46 W of lighting over my 10 gallon tank and it isn't overkill. The fish don't mind the light (Actually they stick to the open area) and the plant growth is good. Generally what happens in tanks with good lighting is the plant growth becomes denser, which provides lots of shade for fish and plants who need it.

 

[lovebuzz]

Your profile says you have 26 watts (2 x 13)

 

[guppygirl]

Well as Yenko said, going overkill on a small tank won't harm it much. Takashi Amano (a very famous planted tank aquascaper) has a 1 liter tank with a 7 watt light over it... which means 38 wpg!! So the smaller the tank, the more light you need.
Also with those lights, make sure the Kelvin value is right... in the 5000-6700 range. They do come in those kinds in home depot I think... you just have to look for them.
I does make a difference!
HTH!
Robin

 

[lovebuzz]

Grr! I just notice that it said available online only! My parents are soooo strict about buying online Whatever, tear-scar has a beautiful ten gallon with 3 wpg, I think I should be fine.

 

[konrad05]

So the smaller the tank, the more light you need.

Actually it's the bigger the tank the more light you need since there is more depth(or height) associated with bigger tanks. Those bulbs you have listed aren't full spectrum therefore they are useless for your plant growing needs. They sell daylight or full spectrum compact twister lighting, they're more expensive and they're what you need.

HTH !

 

[Discomafia]

I used the 15 W bulbs on my 10 gallon and I got good plant growth. Don't be under the impression that nothing will grow unless it's in the 5000-6700K range. They are 2700K bulbs.

Also, I bought them at Home Depot so it's not like that item can't be found in the store. The light it gives off isn't like flourescent lights so it is bound to be yellow. Hope you know that.

http/www.rexgrigg.com/mlt.htm

Good read on why smaller tanks need more light.

 

[sammydee]

Smaller tanks need less overall light, but more watts per gallon.

It's no good having a one gallon tank with a two watt light although "supposedly" that is two watts per gallon, which should be pretty adequate, the fact remains there is still only two watts of light overall, which just isn't enough.

On the other hand, a 200 gallon tank with 400 watts of light should be able to grow quite demanding species of plants, because no matter how big the tank is, the fact remains that there are 400 watts of light there, available for the plants to use.

Do I make sense?

 

[Discomafia]

Read the article, it's all about lumens, not watts. WPG is NOT the best "rule" to go by.

 

[Terrorbyte]

Read the article, it's all about lumens, not watts. WPG is NOT the best "rule" to go by.

The article was quite informative. However, let's not forget that different types of flourescent bulbs can output and concentrate specific wavelengths of light that are most beneficial to certain plant types. I've seen bountiful plant growth in plenty of 30-50 US gallon (and larger) tanks that only used 40-60W of light.

Also consider that tropical plants can grow and survive in murky streams and lakes where much of the natural sunlight is filtered out.

Most store-bought all-inclusive fish tanks (with the hoods and light fixtures) come with cheap, low-powered bulbs and are definitely not sufficient for growing the more demading plants. If you really get into growing some of the more exotic and demanding tropical plants, you're best bet is to make your own lighting fixture as premium, high-wattage lighting fixtures can be very expensive.

 

[konrad05]

I used the 15 W bulbs on my 10 gallon and I got good plant growth. Don't be under the impression that nothing will grow unless it's in the 5000-6700K range. They are 2700K bulbs.

Also, I bought them at Home Depot so it's not like that item can't be found in the store. The light it gives off isn't like flourescent lights so it is bound to be yellow. Hope you know that.

http/www.rexgrigg.com/mlt.htm

Good read on why smaller tanks need more light.

If I would have stayed with the ultra-cheap homedepot "grow" bulbs, my tank wouldn't look like it does now. The growth came with a change in bulbs, that's enough proof for me. Talk to anybody who has a succesfully planted tank and they'll tell you that you have to invest into quality (usually expensive) lighting, no cheap shortcuts around it like everybody tries. Not convinced? Build a spectroscope and compare your 2700K lighting with the suns or even a REAL full spectrum bulb, and perhaps then you will see where I'm coming from.

 

[Discomafia]

Those bulbs you have listed aren't full spectrum therefore they are useless for your plant growing needs.

This is the statement I was directing my comment to. I wanted to clear that up. You can grow plants with those bulbs, and they are not useless. They are in fact very bright and each one of those 15W bulbs are = 60W of incandescent lighting... So that's a lot of lumens... Plant growth just not as good as you would get using 5000-6700K bulbs, which as well all know, is the ideal spectrum for growing plants...

When I switched over to All-Glass Mini Power Compact Fluorescent Lamps which were 10W, the plant growth was in fact not as good, proof that K rating is not as important as the intensity.

And you don't have to spend too much either, Home Depot daylight tubes which are 6500K do the job for me, although I have yet to see for myself what would happen if I switched over to the Coralife Tri-chromatic bulbs you use...

The K rating is the same, except for one thing, the CRI rating which is 94 if I'm not mistaken. The CRI of the Home Depot daylight bulbs I'm using may not be as high, and that might be the reason why your plants were doing so well after you changed. I also know they use some kind of rare-earth trichormatic phospors, not sure if that's part of the equation as well, or just there to enhance the fish's colours...

 

[lovebuzz]

Well then....would those bulbs at least grow these plants? :

Anacharis
java moss
java fern
twisted vallis
straight vallis
possibly anubias...

 

[Discomafia]

Don't see why not, esp. since they're all low lighting plants... My swords used to grow the best in that light, and when I moved them to my other tanks, they all started dying. Really have no idea why.

 

[lovebuzz]

One more thing....tear-scar has a 10 g tank with 2 15 watt fluorescents, 18000 k and 25000 k. These are very high and I'm sure 2700k is closer to the recommended 5000-6700k bulbs, at least I think. So wouldn't 2 15 watt fluorescents do better than 2 18000k and 25000k bulbs? This is kind of confusing and if I'm too unclear please tell me.