lighting for plants

[jmac]

Hi, This my first forum entry. I want to improve the aquarium lighting in my daughters 10g tank so we can grow a few more interesting freshwater plants. We haven't been able to grow banana plants and even the Java Moss doesn't grow well except the clump I put on top of an urn making it closer to the light. I was wondering if it will help to replace my one Marineland Eclipse natural daylight F15T8 18" bulb (15w) with one of the 10,000 -18,000K bulbs (such as a Hagen Aqua-glo, etc, is there a better brand?) for $11-$17? The fixture is for max17w, so I can't increase watts without getting a new fixture and I am not sure getting a new one would be worth the cost since I will eventually get a bigger tank and will choose better lighting then. I have read numerous articles and the best I can fathom is that I would get better penetration of light with one of those higher K bulbs but I have to make sure that they have good PAR/PUR coverage--is this enough improvement in the light for plants to grow? thanks!

[Carl]

You are very limited by the light fixture you have, while the Hagen Aqua Glo may improve your lighting slightly, it would not make much difference.

I am not sure what articles you have read, but I would have to state categorically that they are wrong if they stated increasing Kelvin Temperature would increase output.
Increasing Kelvin Temperature does not increase light output, for plant growth the best temperature is generally around 6000 to 8500K for optimum PAR.

These are important parameters to consider :
• Watts per gallon,
• Lumens per watt
• Lumen focus (AKA Restrike)
• PAR (often easiest determined by Kelvin output),
• Useful Light Energy (not wasted in yellow/green light spectrum that green plants and zooanthellic algae reflect)

A CFL, or better a T5, or better a T2 or best an LED would like be the best option for your tank, but all these require a retrofit of (replacement of the fixture) you have; which is about 20 years out from current technology.

Be careful with much of the lighting information available on the Internet, much is woefully out of date (the aquarium industry as a whole is generally about 5-10 years behind the curve of other industries such as the horticulture industry when it comes to lighting)

Please read these articles (the first is Very in depth) the second is more of a summary, but both are more current as per lighting technology;
Aquarium Lighting Facts & Information
Aquarium Lighting Digest

Check out the "virtual radiator" link in the Kelvin section of the first article, this will better help you understand what Kelvin Temperature is, and what it is not (as it does not determine energy output as some anecdotal comments have put forth)

I personally think a couple of T2 Lights would be your best choice.

BTW, welcome to our forum


Carl

[jmac]

Thanks for the quick reply! Yes I already read those articles--and I drew the conclusion that not much would help either but I was still hoping it could be fixed with a reasonably priced bulb... ;-) I'll start looking at new fixtures (18-3/4 x 4) for my 19-1/4 x 9-3/8 (tetra standard?) top--probably need a new top to fit 2-t2s. BTW, when I said 'better penetration' with higher K lights I probably didn't say it right but I got my info from the "Aquarium Lighting facts..." article quoting that "*Higher Kelvin Color Temperature lights penetrate water more deeply, even more so in saltwater, however there is less of the infrared “PAR spike” as well." I try to get my info by reading first but you confirmed my fears. If I were to get a first tank all over again or advise someone, I would get a bigger tank (I had first cycle problems) and make sure to get better lights. Though, I must say this tank has been a lot of fun to watch even with just the Java Moss (and lots of decorations/shells she picked out for them to hide in), 2 longfin pepper corys (M&F), serpae tetra(M), phantom tetra(F), 3 fantail guppies (M & 2F) (and their 2 elusive fry), Dwarf Red Gourami, Longfin Leopard Danio and Nerite snail. I am enjoying learning about their habits, variety of foods, and hope to move toward a natural aquarium eventually--I guess I am hooked. Having a great local fish store (The Fish Doctors) is helpful and inspiring, too. John Ann Arbor,MI

[babygeige]

Hello! Welcome to our group! I have a 10 gallon tank with some basic low light plants (anubias, java fern, crypt lutea). I just use a plant & aquarium bulb from the hardware store. The brand of mine is GE. It's an 18 inch 15 watt. I'm not really an expert as far as PAR, lumens, etc goes, that's Carl's department.

I've had good success with this bulb. I run it about 8 hours a day. It would never do for high maintenance plants, but for plants that have low light requirements, it's worked fine for me.

[Suzie Q (Lori)]

Welcome to the group...I to have a planted 10g tank. I have all of the plants that BBG mentions plus some...I have Christmas Moss, Dwarf Rotala, Sunset Hygrophila (I think that is the name) and Hornwart. I let it get really over grown and had to move some of my plants into my planted 55g. I also have had Green Wendtii Grypt in there but I moved it into the 55g.

The difference in my tank and BBG's is that I have "soil" in it and not gravel. I just took some pictures of the tank but I'll have to see how to get them from my phone to photobucket...then on here

Lori

[Carl]

Glad you read these articles, sorry if I also misunderstood, but I get sooo many emails literally daily where the sender has been told all sorts of strange things or have been to forums such as Yahoo Answers and told similar fallacies.

Both the ladies here made some excellent points, and that is there are many plants that do well in lower light. I have a 14 gallon aquarium that has two CFL; one 18 watt daylight and one 15 watt Blue and it does OK with even Amazon Swords (key word OK, not fast growth). However this does not even match the growth of plants with another 40 gallon tank with only one 12 watt Natural Daylight aquarium LED Fixture where the plants are growing like crazy.

Also keep in mind that lighting is only part of the equation, as also noted by Suzie Q, substrates and other parameters impact plants as well (such as bio available CO2 and nutrients in the water column)

See this article:
Freshwater Aquarium Plant Care

Both Banana Plants & Java Moss do not require high light, nor even substrate, so you might read over this article as to other parameters

Carl

[jmac]

Thanks for the encouragement. I just bought a crypotocoryne lutea today. I put it midground directly under the light. Instead of burying it I piled some smooth large(3/4-1") colorful gravel around it so it would be a little closer to the light. My daughter liked it and we'll see how it does. Mine came with lots of roots maybe 3" outside the pot. Thought about Java fern but their specimens looked beatup and had only a few leaves so I passed on those.

[jmac]

my last post was meant for BBG and BTW your tank photo looks great. This reply is to both Q and Carl. I had already read half of the "Freshwater ...Plant..." article but this time with the Crypt lutea I got, I read the substrate part too. Maybe I'll consider that in the next tank. There are so much in all these articles that I'll be rereading them over and over to understand the science and experience. I decided the last time I read the article that I would start managing my bubblers . I have been turning them off or down for good parts of the day now. As my plants grow I'll cut back more. A timer is next so I can regularly turn them off in mid morning and back on later after dark. I won't know for sure about where CO2 stands until I get my own test kit. I have been depending on my local fish store to do free tests but they don't do CO2 or kh just the basic nitrogen cycle tests and pH. I started looking at tank top/light fixtures today too. BTW, I bought the plant from a Pet Plus because they have a fresh and big selection. I cleaned off the pot surface and followed another forum's "option2" to soak for 4-5 mins in 20:1 bleach mixture then rinse in a thiosulf (dechlorinator water mix). I was a little worried because that's the first thing from outside of my other local stores tanks. Was I too cautious? Thanks again for interesting advice and comments.

[jmac]

Carl, oops--that 'other forum' I referred to was your article "AQUARIUM PLANT CARE (Planted Freshwater Aquariums)". this is off topic... Thanks again.
John

[Carl]

Good luck with your new plant (Crypt lutea)..

Try and provide ferts for this plant, substrate helps too IMO, but it is ferts that "make or break" the Crypt lutea

I prefer the Root Tabs, either Flourish Root Tabs or a similar product for Crypt luteas

Carl

[babygeige]

Thanks jmac!
Crypts do like nutrients. I think they appreciate that more than light. I have some in my 30 gallon that is lit with a 96 watt CFL. They don't seem to do as well as the 2 I have in the 10 gallon. I put a flourish root tab near mine every few months and that helps them a lot.

Another nice thing about crypts: When the plant gets big enough, you can pull it out and divide it.
I have a thread about that somewhere. I did that and got 3 new plants!