New To Planted Tanks Help !

[Djs7137]

So I have had my tank for 4 years now and I wanted to try something new !
I went out and bought snail free dwarf grass and Pogostemon helferi. I also purchased a Aqueon Floramax T8 18"L 15 watt lamp, TETRA FloraPride and CO2 Booster. I have already broken up the dwarf grass into little small clumps around the aquarium. Is there anything else I should know or tips to have these plants carpet and lush ?
 
 
 

 

[Ch4rlie]

hello,
 
Is this for a 10 gallon tank btw?
 
Am assuming this from your sig.
 
Anyway, 15w lighting on your 10 gal is about 1.5w per gallon or about 0.4w per litre, this is pretty much low lighting level, so may be difficult to grow ANY carpet plants in low lights, i would suggest a more powerful wattage bulb if you can.
 
The ferts and co2 boost should certainly help though.
 
just needs a little more lighting watts to bring it up to least 0.6w per litre since that would bring it up to medium light level which would help a lot.

 

[Zikofski]

i agrea, i tried to grow carpet plants in a medium to high light and still failed most carpet plants require high light and co2 and IMO perfect flow, but again i could be wrong and maybe just maybe your carpet will flourish just watch out for fish uprooting the plant and algae that was my two problems, dam clowns and algae :'(

 

[Brandon1]

I think that Ch4rlie is right on the money when it comes to actually needing a little more wattage. Even with all the other additions, you are going to find you need a bit more wattage to keep growing a little faster. Looks nice so far though, make sure to take another picture when you have upgraded and continued J

 

[eduller]

When it comes to fluorescent lighting, you really can't use watts per gallon the same way you can with incandescent lighting. Fluorescent lighting (and LED) is made specifically to put out the same amount of light for less wattage than the incandescent equivalent. You really use PAR and light color spectrum to determine your lighting needs.

Example: I have one T8 17W bulb on my 20 gallon long, and I have medium-high light needs plants growing very nicely, even though that's  less than 1 watt per gallon.
 
Just make sure your bulb is in the 6500K spectrum range, and your bulb should be fine for a 10G.