Was Just Thinking...

[WayneVT08]

When I get my 55 gallon tank up and running, I wanted to have some live plants. I got a starter kit with basic lights...

The lights are 120 volt - 19 watt - 60 hz

What are some low wattage plants that can grow under these lights? That are also easy to grow? All of these plants need to be able to be maintained without CO2.

Can anyone give me any names of things that I will need to get started out with too?

hahaha I keep leaving stuff out, so I have to edit.

Alright, yet another edit, and was just wondering about my planned stock for this tank.

6-7x Tiger Barbs
5x clown loaches
6-7x Turquoise Danio or Giant Danio
3-4x Boesemani Rainbow
7-10x Harlequin Rasbora

If not the clown loaches what would you suggest (instead of them)?

 

[phlawed]

When I get my 55 gallon tank up and running, I wanted to have some live plants. I got a starter kit with basic lights...

The lights are 120 volt - 19 watt - 60 hz

What are some low wattage plants that can grow under these lights? That are also easy to grow? All of these plants need to be able to be maintained without CO2.

Can anyone give me any names of things that I will need to get started out with too?

nothing would survive long under those lights. If you are looking for live plants, you will probably want to look at upgrading your lights. Just do it slowingly and everything will come around. Research all the pinned articles and learn them well and it will save you money in the long run.

 

[WayneVT08]

What kinda wattage would I need? And how much would they cost? Cause I'm totally lost on this subject as of now...

 

[jpedersen024]

You'd need a minimum of 3 watts/ gallon for decent plant growth... cost depends on what type of hood you have. Compact fluorescent bulbs are great for high output, but you need to have the right fixture to fit them. Otherwise get a glass top, and put more than 1 regular light strip up there to max out.... but then you're looking at more bulbs and another strip..

An investment worth looking into!

 

[simonbrown403]

You'd need a minimum of 3 watts/ gallon for decent plant growth... cost depends on what type of hood you have. Compact fluorescent bulbs are great for high output, but you need to have the right fixture to fit them. Otherwise get a glass top, and put more than 1 regular light strip up there to max out.... but then you're looking at more bulbs and another strip..

An investment worth looking into!

That's not strictly true, 3wpg (watts per gall) would allow you to grow almost anything but you would probably have to add co2 to keep the system balanced, at the plants nutrient up take would strip the tank bare and carse serious algae issues, which don't look pretty.

You could get away with 55wats of light giving you 1wpg although a little more is better, where you could have some low maintenance, low light plants such as java moss, Java fern, hygrophilia, water sprite wort, hornwort and a few others, floating species would do well.

As for fish stocks i would keep them down to a minamumas to many will mean a build up of nitraite etc and algue problems in the future.

 

[phlawed]

You'd need a minimum of 3 watts/ gallon for decent plant growth... cost depends on what type of hood you have. Compact fluorescent bulbs are great for high output, but you need to have the right fixture to fit them. Otherwise get a glass top, and put more than 1 regular light strip up there to max out.... but then you're looking at more bulbs and another strip..

An investment worth looking into!

That's not strictly true, 3wpg (watts per gall) would allow you to grow almost anything but you would probably have to add co2 to keep the system balanced, at the plants nutrient up take would strip the tank bare and carse serious algae issues, which don't look pretty.

You could get away with 55wats of light giving you 1wpg although a little more is better, where you could have some low maintenance, low light plants such as java moss, Java fern, hygrophilia, water sprite wort, hornwort and a few others, floating species would do well.

As stated above, a planted tank is something worth looking into...it doesnt always come cheap or easy.

As for fish stocks i would keep them down to a minamumas to many will mean a build up of nitraite etc and algue problems in the future.

if looking for a planted tank, i would not recomend wasting money on only 55w of lighting. Even if they do get their 1-2wpg, they will then be looking for more most likely. So why not just buy the right system to begin with? Ebay is a great choice for finding lighting sytems for your tank. Take a look there first before anything.
As stated above, planted tanks dont always come cheap or easy....thats why i recomended the above statement. Its better to start off right in the planted tanks than trial and error. There will always be trial and error in the planted tank, but minimizing it always helps.

 

[WayneVT08]

I just looked at the hoods closer and on the light it says 15 watt. And there are 2 hoods, each hood is 24". They each have one bulb in the bottom of it, and there is a piece of plexiglass covering the bulbs to where I can't get to the bulb to replace it. There's also a white thing around the bulb, maybe a reflector? I don't know. But the piece plexiglass covering the bulb "area" is set in place with what seems to be silicone. I don't want to have to buy a whole new hood for it. But maybe I'll just end up getting a smaller 20 gallon and plant that. We will see as things develop and I study/research more information.

 

[WayneVT08]

So I'm pretty much an idiot. I just was looking at my hood and I went to turn it upside down and the compartment where the light bulb is kinda fell off or slid off, it didn't break but now I know how to get to the bulb. haha congrats to me.

 

[Themuleous]

The whole lighting argue ment boils down to how much you're willing to spend and what you aim for the tank is. If you just want a fish tank but also with a few live plants to make it look nice then 1WGP would be fine. If however you want a tank full of plants that are growing like made and really want to 'scape' the tank using the plants then aim for 2WPG or over.

1WPG = no CO2, little ferts = slow plant growth and only easy undemanding plants, cheap

2WPG and over = CO2 (you'll need pressurised on a 55g too), ferts and/or trace added each day, rich plant substrate (you'll need to strip the tank to add this) = lots of money and time pruning and doing water changes!

Hope that helps, sounds to me like you after a 1WPG tank?

 

[WayneVT08]

That's pretty much it, but I might end up just having fake plants and lots of caves and geting a smaller 20 gallon and having that planted with a large shoal of harlequin rasboras or neon tetras.