Planning A 40 Gallon Breeder

[jmiller]

Thanks for that.

Now what about lighting? The tank is 36" and will mostly be rock and wood with a sand substrate. I'm wanting sparse plants, mainly as secondary decoration. Will just a standard one bulb 24" light be enough of will I have to upgrade to something different?

 

[drobbyb]

There are a few plants that will do well in low light situations. Plants like java fern, java moss, anubias, and vals do well without pressurized CO2 or intense lighting. Really, you want to shoot for about 1 watt per gallon. A 36 inch T5 fixture plus bulb goes for about $74 on ebay. It's 39 watts, so roughly 1 watt per gallon. A 2 bulb fixture runs $122 and will give you 2 watts per gallon. You can grow almost any plant with 2 watts per gallon given you have the right substrate and ferts. I'm not a plant guy, so I'm not sure if you will need CO2 with 2 watts per gallon or not.

How many watts is the bulb in the 24" fixture?

 

[jmiller]

I thought I wrote it down but I didn't. I'm guessing it isn't much. The glass hood and light fixture were only $68 combined.

 

[drobbyb]

Ok, I did some searching and came up with 20 watts for a single bulb fixture at 24 inches (T8 bulb.) I think you would need more than .5 wpg but I could be wrong. It just seems pretty dim to me.

 

[jmiller]

Thanks for that. I checked on their website (Aqueon) and couldn't find anything. I remember them looking like they might not be the best quality.

 

[drobbyb]

Can anyone comment on the .5 watts per gallon lighting? Will that be enough to grow plants like java moss and fern and possibly some anubias?

 

[jmiller]

I've been reading up on Rams, the German Blue or Bolivian looks like they might be an opition, or possibly a Cockatoo Cichlid. From reading it appears all three would be good tank mates with the Black Widow Tetras but I might be moving the Ember Tetras into the tank also because they are currently being bullied pretty bad by one of the male guppies. I can't find anything about mixing the two, does anyone know?

 

[jmiller]

Plans put on hold until I can stick with a decision. I went to the LFS today with every intention to go ahead and buy the tank. I had even gone so far as the make up the most outlandish lie I could to explain to the wife why I bought it, but once there the 40 breeder is setting right next to the 65 that I have looked at before and I started to have doubts. Time to walk away.

I'm definitely limited to one that's 36" in length, that part can't change, but as I was wavering today I'm afraid if I got the 40 that I would soon regret not going bigger. So it looks like I'm not quite ready yet so more research and thinking to do.

 

[drobbyb]

A smart move. An impulse buy can be a bad thing in this hobby for sure.

 

[jmiller]

After doing some more research today I should have just went ahead and bought the 40. With the species I'm looking at stocking that extra 8 inches in height doesn't really make that much difference.

The more I read about those rams the better they look. So I think I will be planning on a pair of them. Right now it's looking like a pair of Bolivian rams, approx 10 false Julii cory and a large shoal (20+) of black widow tetras. There will be plenty of room left for something additional if something catches my eye and fits with the others. If anyone has some suggestions lets hear them.