I have a 30 gallon hexagon tank 24in in height and I'm using the 14 watt blub they gave me I'm wondering that will be enough for plants such as hornwort, Amazon Sword, and Java Ferns. Should I get more wattage what do you think?
Lighting
- Thread starter StarOrbs
- Start date
Silly me
Fish Addict
on a 30 gallon 30 Watts will be min.. you'll have much lower than low lights with a 14W light
You have discovered one of the real problems with Hex tanks! They tend to be deep, so need more light anyway then a regular shaped tank, but have no room for the lamps to give you the Watts needed.
In a regular shaped tank, say 300mm/12" deep, about 2 Watts per gallon of full spectrum 5500K - 6500K will give "Medium" light, you'll need a bit more then that at that depth to get the same.
Java Fern some Crypts and Anubias species will grow, albeit very slowly in low light, you may get a sword to stay alive but it isn't going to be a star performer.
Unfortunately, fluorescent lamps have, within reason, a length/Watts relationship. More powerful lamps are longer. You might consider using compact fluorescents, it depends how you hood is set up and how handy you are with some tools. You can get a lot more Watts out of CF's, and these days, can even get CF's with a decent spectrum, (the regular ones sold for houses are too low, ~2700K).
Another problem with hex tanks is related, they have a low surface area to volume, so stocking levels are necessarily lower unless you have a lot of water movement.
In a regular shaped tank, say 300mm/12" deep, about 2 Watts per gallon of full spectrum 5500K - 6500K will give "Medium" light, you'll need a bit more then that at that depth to get the same.
Java Fern some Crypts and Anubias species will grow, albeit very slowly in low light, you may get a sword to stay alive but it isn't going to be a star performer.
Unfortunately, fluorescent lamps have, within reason, a length/Watts relationship. More powerful lamps are longer. You might consider using compact fluorescents, it depends how you hood is set up and how handy you are with some tools. You can get a lot more Watts out of CF's, and these days, can even get CF's with a decent spectrum, (the regular ones sold for houses are too low, ~2700K).
Another problem with hex tanks is related, they have a low surface area to volume, so stocking levels are necessarily lower unless you have a lot of water movement.
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