Best Light To Use For Low Budget Tank?

[BIGbadJOHN]

Ok, so some of you may laugh at me, but I just want some honest opinions on the best option I have with the equipment I currently have. It's not much at all. I only have an 18" T8 8,000K Full Spectrum 15W Aqueon bulb on top of my 28 gallon bowfront tank. I have live plants in the tank and they are surviving for the most part. I have some anacharis, wisteria, amazon sword, cryptocyrne, java fern, and a banana plant. The anacharis and java fern are doing fine and the java in particular actually has 2 leaves that have propagated. The cryptocyrne is growing VERY slowly, but seems to be doing ok. The wisteria seems to be doing ok to my surprise with such low light. The 2 amazons are definitely stunted as they lost their original large leaves that I bought them with and now they have several leaves but they look like a dwarf amazon now. The banana plant is not doing well and has lost a few leaves and I don't expect it to make it much longer. I don't have the money to spend on another lighting system right now. If I were to, I would probably go with a dual bulb T5 system since it's the most economical from what I can tell. What I want to know is if there is an 18" T8 I can install in my current fixture that will give me better lighting conditions for the plants. I understand there probably isn't one that will do an adequate job for plant growth, but in short I just want to know what the very BEST bulb is for my particular application? From the hood to the substrate is roughly 1.5 ft. Thanks for y'all's help!

 

[Ebbo]

Hi,

It will depend on how much more you are planning to do with regards to 'making the plants grow more'. If you just want to increase the light and keep the tank low-tech (no Co2, nutrients for the plants, or strong lighting) then I would do this very carefuly - as you may end up giving more light than the plants require and help algae get a better hold of your tank.

It sounds to me, with the size of your tank and current lighting, that you could get away with a further T8 tube and leave it at that until (or if) you decide to add Co2 & nutrients.

regards,

 

[BIGbadJOHN]

Hi,

It will depend on how much more you are planning to do with regards to 'making the plants grow more'. If you just want to increase the light and keep the tank low-tech (no Co2, nutrients for the plants, or strong lighting) then I would do this very carefuly - as you may end up giving more light than the plants require and help algae get a better hold of your tank.

It sounds to me, with the size of your tank and current lighting, that you could get away with a further T8 tube and leave it at that until (or if) you decide to add Co2 & nutrients.

regards,

I'm not looking to buy another fixture. I have a single bulb fixture and that's all I want at the moment. My question is what is the best bulb I can get for the T8 18" fixture I have? The Coralife NutriGrow is about the best I've seen so far. Are there any other better than it?

 

[fleeing]

To be honest there seems to be little difference between all the different bulbs available, and experience suggests absolutely no advantage in buying (more) expensive brand names over normal no-name bulbs. A popular choice here in Denmark, is to combine two different colour gradings, 827(warm white) and 865(daylight), the first giving a more yellowish tint and the second a cooler bluish tint. At least over here, the 827 yellowish colour is considered to be a tiny bit more beneficial to plant growth.

Seeing as you only have space for the one bulb, if you can stand looking at a very yellow aquarium, you could try a 827 bulb. But essentially there seems to be no real reason to pay out for name bulbs, other than to subsidise your LFS and the name on the tube.

 

[BIGbadJOHN]

Well, speaking of not being able to afford a light.....I happened to go by the lfs today which I knew was going to be moving to another location next month. They had all hardgoods for 50% off so I picked up the best thing they had in stock for lighting. It's not real great, but I couldn't beat the price. It's an Aqueon Dual T5 fixture. Not the best fixture, but it puts me right at 1 watt per gallon when I was only at a little over a half watt per gallon. I've heard you can't go by wattage so much anyways and T5's are supposed to put out a bit more light than the T8's. I also picked up a Rena Filstar XP1 for only $30 as well. Not a bad trip to the lfs I'd say!

 

[fleeing]

Oh Happy Day!!

That sounds like you got a great deal there.

Just one word of warning. Your new lighting rig will be putting out so much more light that your plants will have one hell of a shock. Not only do T5s put out more light, you now have 2 of them.

It's a good idea to reduce your lighting time massively with the new lights, and slowly increase it again as you see your plants reacting to it. I think if you just put in the new rig and blast away, you will most likely be rewarded by some kind of algae explosion.

Do consider treating your plants to some kind of CO2 (gas or fluid) and both macro and micro fertilisers. That will make it easier for them to utilise all that extra light you want to give them.

 

[BIGbadJOHN]

Oh Happy Day!!

That sounds like you got a great deal there.

Just one word of warning. Your new lighting rig will be putting out so much more light that your plants will have one hell of a shock. Not only do T5s put out more light, you now have 2 of them.

It's a good idea to reduce your lighting time massively with the new lights, and slowly increase it again as you see your plants reacting to it. I think if you just put in the new rig and blast away, you will most likely be rewarded by some kind of algae explosion.

Do consider treating your plants to some kind of CO2 (gas or fluid) and both macro and micro fertilisers. That will make it easier for them to utilise all that extra light you want to give them.

Thanks for the advice. I went ahead and reduced my timer from 8 hours that I had with my single T8 to 3 hours with the two T5's. Keep in mind also that these aren't HO T5's, just standard T5 lighting. How long should I wait before upping the lighting time? How soon should I see results and know that I've reached the correct time period?

I really don't want to get into CO2. This is about as high tech as I want to get with the system. I know they would grow much better and all, but I just don't want things that complicated. I know it's only one extra thing, but it just seems like too much for me. I'm ok with not having a jungle tank because I definitely don't want to be pruning all the time! Again, thanks for all your help and advice! It's much appreciated.

 

[fleeing]

Opinions on minimum usable lighting time for plants do differ, but I would suggest starting with about 5 hours with lights on and slowly increase that. Just keep an eye on your plants to make sure that is not too little (hardly likely).
If you're intent on avoiding dosing CO2 I would think that around 6 hours should be enough, though others may have better ideas/more experience. But if you really want to get the best out of your plants I would recommend that you consider dosing some kind of macro and micro fertiliser. Your plants will love you for it.