Need Help With Lighting

[Lisa67]

I want to create a low-tech planted tank.  I am confused about which lights to order.  My tank is 4 foot long and 22" deep (sorry, my husband doesn't do centimeters and meters...lol).  Could you please recommend a bulb.  Do I need a T5 or T8?  How many watts?   Thank you for your help.  This is all new to me.

 

[Lunar Jetman]

Do you know the volume of water your tank holds? Or the width?

 

[This Old Spouse]

Sounds like a 75 gallon.

 

[Lisa67]

It is a 75 gallon bow front tank...so the width varies.

 

[Lisa67]

OK, me again.  I've been surfing the internet like crazy and I'm becomming more and more confused about lighting.  Right now I have a 40 watt aquarium bulb.  I'm assuming it's the one that came with the tank.  The light seems incredibly bright (too bright).  I can't imagine at 1 to 1.5 watts/gal how much worse it would be...this is why I'm guessing that the T5 and T8 bulbs must be a totally different thing.  My light strip only  holds one bulb.  I'd prefer not to have to change the strip if possible.
 
Also, substrate never occured to me (did I mention I'm totally new to this?)  I had a sand mix when I had mbuna ciclids, but dumped that all out and switched to gravel when I redid my tank.  I'd rather not change it now, so I researched plant's that don't require substrate and many sites say java fern and anubias...do you agree?  Are there others?  I do  hope to eventually become more of a pro at this, but want to start off very slowly.  Thanks for your advice.                       Lisa

 

[This Old Spouse]

I wish I could help more (I'm Lisa too 

) but I don't know the difference between T5 an T8 either. I can tell you that it looks a whole lot brighter when you don't have anything in the tank like plants and rocks and driftwood.
 
I switched from gravel to sand in all my tanks a couple years ago and I'll never look back. The plants do fairly well and the corydoras are right at home. It's worlds easier to clean than gravel, too. I just feel it doesn't harbor as much harmful stuff.
 
Java fern, anubias, bolbitis fern and a few others require being attached to driftwood or rock to grow, and they grow in lower light conditions. 
 
That's about all I can offer!

 

[Lisa67]

I agree that part of the brightness problem could be caused by the fact that there are currently no plants (I have driftwood, but it's still soaking).  There are some rocks, but they are white.  Still, if it's that bright at 40 watts...and I have to double it?  I had the sand for several years and I truly grew to hate it.  I found it expensive and impossible to clean.  It was always getting sucked up in the siphon.  Also, it seemed a great medium for algee.  I had to keep moving it around infront of the glass because it always looked dirty.  In addition to that I think the process of switching  back to sand would be very stressful for my fish who have finially settled in.  As much as I'd love to have a beautiful, heavily planted tank, I'm willing to start with stuff I have to fasten to rocks and driftwood.

 

[This Old Spouse]

Did you use play sand? Just curious because one of the things I like about my sand is that it tends to hide the dirt, and play sand is really cheap. But if you don't like it, that's up to you, of course. Didn't realize you already had fish.
 
If 40w seems really bright to you, then it probably is. And if you've got some driftwood, using anubias and java fern could look wonderful. They're easy to grow.

 

[Lisa67]

Lisa, thanks for all of your help, it's really appreciated.  No, I didn't use play sand.  I used some very expensive black and white sand that was "made" spicifically for ciclids...it's been a while now so I don't remember if it was supposed to increase the Ph, or something else.  Anyway, it was about $25/ bag.  I still have it in my 120 gal tank which houses frontosas.  Eventually (if I get some experience) I'd like to put plants in that tank.  The 75 gal is my "starter" tank.

 

[This Old Spouse]

Have you waded through the planted section of the forum? Good stuff in there. 
 
I think planted tanks are gorgeous, and I'm still trying to get mine to the point where I really love them. Aquascaping is truly an art, and keeping all the plants healthy is something else. I'm hoping to get a CO2 system for my 55g, but in the meantime I'm just dosing fertilizers and doing water changes with the lights off!
 
I do like my play sand. It's about $2.99 for a 50-lb bag and I just like the natural look it has. 
 
Do you have photos posted of your tanks?

 

[Lisa67]

I don't have pics because it's not much to look at yet.  I used to have mbuna ciclids in the tank and I had it decorated with lava rocks and kind of a dark background...not to mention the black/white sand.  There were no plants because they eat them.  To me, the tank was so dreary looking.  So...when I decided to redo it I wanted it to be as bright as possible.  I (maybe mistakenly) put white gravel in and a few large white rocks from my yard.  There are actually 2 temporary plants in there.  As I said, I have a nice piece of driftwood being prepared.  The fish are black and white angle fish and a school of 8 red serape tetra.  Not the most natural, but I think with some plants it will look nice. 

 

[This Old Spouse]

LOL ... pardon me LOLing, but I'm picturing tetras wearing Mexican serapès. I'm thinking probably serpae tetras. HA! As I typed that my autocorrect did the serape!
 
Anyway, I think that sounds rather striking. The black and white with the flashes of bright orange I'm sure it looks great!

 

[Lisa67]

 Funny, I even googled the correct spelling.  Darn auto correct.  By the way, I'm assuming the tank in the pic is yours.  It's absolutely beautiful.  How can you have a tank like that and not know the difference between a T5 and a T8 bulb?  LOL.  I thought that knowing "all there is to know" about light bulbs was the key to success.