Lighting, Compact Florescents, 10 Gallon

[soritan]

OK, I'm really sorry. I bet this has been asked tens of hundreds of times, to the point of being irritating as high hell, but I can't for the life of me figure out my so-called watts per gallon.

I have an 'old skool' style hood, bought back in the early 90s. It's got a standard incandescent screw in, and the little hood is rather roomy.

Today, I finally flipped the hood over and replaced the bulbs. I replaced old, old incandescent light bulbs -- those ugly tinted ones that I fancied in my youth -- with your standard issue 'daylight' compact florescents, bought on sale for something like four bucks each. I flipped the hood back on, and damn, it's sooo much brighter in there. I know that most people don't know how dark their tanks are, and I'm sure I number among them, but this was a marked improvement.

I replaced two 25 watt incandescent light bulbs (only one was actually functional at the time, though), with two 13 watt compact florescent bulbs.

So, I honestly don't want a really dense, highly planted, lush underwater garden. I'm fine with a "low light" tank, with some java moss, some marimo balls, some anacharis (it was a gift, I swear I'd never put a full yard of this 'medium light' plant in a tank with only 1 working bulb), and some java fern. I just want it for added filtration, and some natural food for my future ghost shrimps. Also, since bettas are considered 'shy' fish who like cover, I just wanted cover for them. In fact, I'd probably be happy if I just had a wad of java moss and that would be that.


With that in mind, I have no idea now what my light levels are, and what kinds of plants I can support.

I am having real difficulty figuring out what my 'wpg' is. I've googled and searched, and all that, and I can't figure on a decent search string to figure it.

If I go by the sticky:

13+13= 26 watts
26/10= 2.6 watts per gallon

If I go by a single thread I located using google on this forum, I'd have to actually double (or even triple if I go by yet *another* thread I found on a different forum), the watts the CFLs use, to get a more accurate wpg.

26+26= 52 watts
52/10= 5.2 watts per gallon.


I realize in either case, that my bulbs are considered a 'poor light source', no matter how brigh it appears. These guys are considered 'daylight bulbs', which makes them slightly better than very bad by industry standards.


I'm just.



I'm SO confused.

Can someone please point me in the right direction and then kick me squarely in the behind?

 

[RYO]

At 2.6 wpg your lighting is pretty good (med-med high). The main difference between the old lights and new is while the wattage might not be as high the new tubes will be full spectrum and have a better colour temp.
With that lighting you could grow most plants without any difficulty. Substrate and feed being your next goal.
What are you using as substrate ?
Don't be fooled into thinking all bettas are shy, mine ruled my 120L community tank for over 2 years lol

 

[soritan]

At the moment, my tank is ugly ugly ugly. *laugh*

The substrate is... a sore on the eyes. It's got some old marbles in it, some smallish river stone on one side, towards the middle is green and dark green aquarium gravel, and towards the end is black and reddish pink aquarium gravel. As I'm still fishless cycling, all of them are pretty much on their own and unmixed (no gravel vacuuming yet). I'm fairly broke, so I pretty much made due with what I had.

Apart from that, I have a fair amount of bogwood. I knew someone at the fish store, and they cut me a small deal for purchasing a fair amount. That covered up most of the ugly substrate. I have 3 large-ish bogwood pieces, and 3 smallish pieces. One peice is already starting to turn a little green from what I presume to be algea (I only just noticed it after I put in the new light bulbs).

I have two fake plants I bought, under the impression that they'd be reddish. Unfortunately, they were actually pinkish. I've learned to live with them.

I honestly didn't intend to make a planted tank, it just sort of happened.

My ultimate contents would involve a sort of 'hedge' effect of java fern, a floating mass of java moss, and three marimo balls (I don't know, three just seems 'right'). I think I'd like to remove the pink silk plants at some point, except I'm kind of starting to like them.

I have lots of anacharis, it was a gift and I probably wouldn't weep if they all died. However, only one strand seems to be doing poorly, but it's simply dying off as it sends out a new shoot. I've read they sometimes do that, and I've also read that they tend to get a little rotty when they're put into a new tank.

I would on occasion use the tank to root plant cuttings. I've had creeping figs in my betta bowls for months, originally I put it there simply to root it. Instead, it just sort of hung out and took it easy. Never lost a leaf, and my bettas enjoyed sitting on them. I put a bunch of that into the tank for the fishless cycle, and the things started to send out major roots and branch out.


If my light is medium to medium bright, I imagine all my plans are largely doable, right? I'm starting to like the idea of duckweed, honestly, and hornwort (I think that's the name of it, it's slipped my mind).

 

[RYO]

Duckweed lol i cant get rid of mine quick enough.

 

[soritan]

I figured that'd earn me a chuckle or two. Or more like a few
"agh, don't!" replies.

I rather like the look of it. I'll probably get the hornwort instead, as I've read that it's better at using nitrates than duckweed is. I just like floating plants, is all. Part of why I'm so keen on using java moss.

 

[RYO]

I tied my java moss onto bogwood and let it grow, my betta use to crash land in it and chill out.
Lol i see wot you mean with the gravel, maybe try using a carpeting plant like glosso could help.