Lighting Question

[sid_zie]

The story so far:

I bought an ORCA TL-450....all in one marine cube, nice and cheap and came with everything. The lighting is 2*18W T5 10000K, and it's just over 15 US gallons.

At the time of buying I thought that 2.4 WPG would be good and so i decided to start a planted tank. I've been adding weekly ferts and DIY CO2, and still getting algea.

With further reading I am wondering if the problem again is back to lighting? First, i've read that for smaller tanks the WPG rule doesn't hold as well. Second, that lighting designed for marine tanks is not ideal for Fresh water.

Would changing the lights help? If so, would it just be a case of buying different bulbs/tubes or a totally different fitting?

I was origionally going for Medium light, but think that low light would be easier (and have taken inspiration from some of the low light tanks on here).

Sorry, that's actually lots of questions, but any advice would be helpful.

Thanks
Sid

 

[sid_zie]

Anyone?...

Well I’ve been reading some more, and how does this plan sound?...

The simplest thing I think I can try, is to replace the current 18W T5 bulbs (I think they are PCs) with some that aren’t 10k marine, 50/50 ones. I’m guessing there are some daylight ones out there which will be much more suitable to plant growth.

Does this sound sensible?

Also, has anyone had success growing plants under lights that are designed for marine aquaria?

 

[nry]

I'd change the tubes for freshwater plant ones (your choice of tube), ~2wpg is fine over a 15-gallon tank, works perfect for me, though stable CO2 is essential.