New To Plants!

[Nikki77D]

So i am new to plant keeping and i have got liquid fertilizer and excel co2 that i will be adding evey week.The only plant i have in there right now is a java fern tied to a piece of wood, i head that i will need to dose some iron for that plant? Also i only have normal gravel so can anyone give me a list of easy hardy plants that will be okay in the gravel, also i have a kribensis cichlid in the tank if that matters

 and i found out that my lighting is 15 watts, which seems really low to the 1-2 watts per gallon rule, do i need a new bulb? is so what type and how many watts? its an aqueon 36 bow front tank, so i dont know what other bulbs would fit

 

[Khanna]

Aqueon 36, as in its volume is 36 gallons? That means your WPG is >.5, though java fern are notoriously hard to kill and I don't think they need that much light. Also, if you want to keep a variety of plants, you want to get a brighter bulb.
 
 The way you figure watts per gallon is watts divided by gallon. So if you wanted 1 watt per gallon, you'd buy a 36 watt bulb. For 2 gallons, you'd buy a 72 watt bulb.

 

[DrRob]

Watts per gallon was largely worked out before we even used T8 tubes. T12's were the vogue back in those days.
 
To gauge lighting these days we really need to know that the light is. I have an 11W power compact happily growing most things over a 30l tank.
 
Depending on what fertiliser you're using, it may well have iron in it.

 

[SLIM]

Actually watt per gallon or watt per liter does not apply anymore as this is an extremely out dated way of calculating light.
Especially with modern lighting like T5s.

 

[Nikki77D]

Its a t8, and its 17 watts sorry, is that okay?

 

[Nikki77D]

And I'm using seachem flourish for fertiliser.

 

[DrRob]

Well you're properly into low light with that set up. Microfertilisers always help though.