Little space on cover and not enought light...

[mic]

Hi all,

I'm new here, and impressed!
Just read several articles and the EI method was new to me ;-)

I have a 78G Jebo planted aquarium, and the problem is I have only 3 30W neon bulbs that practically cover almost all the cover of the aquarium.
More over, currently two are 10,000k and one is 3700k (no need to mention the algae is thriving, unlike the plants... )

Any idea what can I do to add more light?
I need something that is small and doesn't generate too much heat.

 

[zig]

Power compacts would probably fit the bill for you depending on the dimensions of your tank, they are as the name implies more compact than normal T8 flourescents and have higher wattage outputs.

Welcome to the forum btw.

 

[mic]

10x buddy

 

[Dubby]

welcome to the forum mic !

Can you please tell us what plants you have got there? What are your nitrate levels? And what fish do you have?

You should get a lot of success if you plant anubias, crypts and vallis in a sandy substrate. Add some fast growers like hornwort too.

 

[mic]

Hi Dubby,
Thanks for the welcome and advices.

I'm trying to make my aquarium as natural as possible. As such I have few types of plants, on high density.
I have several Cabomba bushes, and I'm afraid to say I've forgotten the name of the other three types, but I have another bush of green-pink small leaved plant, another couple of bushes of bright large leaved plant and a plant that sticks to rocks.
Of course I still have quite a lot of algea...

By the way, eventually it turned out the neons I have are T-8, so I've added a couple of T-5 s.
The plants are already reacting (within two days) and start to grow faster.
My nitrates levels are very low (<1), but my KH and GH are still too high (on their way down KH from 11 to 6 and GH from 14 to 11 in the last two months) so my pH is high too (around 7.5 on the evening).