What is the cheapest way to upgrade my lighting??

[gale]

My hygros are growing like weeds, but they're spindly and most of them have little or no leaves toward the bottom. I'm guessing this is due to low light (I have only 1 watt per gallon since it's a regular light fixture).

So what's the cheapest way to upgrade?

 

[Yenko]

It may also be a nutrient problem, but you should certianly increase your lighting untill you deal with that problem. Unfortunately, small tanks are the hardest to light properly. How long is your tank? If it's less than 18" long you're going to have big problems fitting florescent tubes over it. In that case it may actually be smarter to buy Ecology of the Planted Aquarium by Diana Walstad and follow her instructions to setting up the tank.

 

[gwlee7]

gale,

If you got 1 double light 24 inch fixture from home depot or some place like that and added it beside the one you have, you'd immediately go from 1 watt per gallon to 3 watts per gallon. Then, you could grow almost any plant you wanted and if not careful, some of that BG algae you were helping me with on my thread.

 

[gale]

How long is your tank?

My tank is 30" long. I only know this because I just measured it 2 nights ago for a new background.

If you got 1 double light 24 inch fixture from home depot or some place like that and added it beside the one you have, you'd immediately go from 1 watt per gallon to 3 watts per gallon.

If I did this, would I still have room to open the tank? I'm afraid there isn't enough room up there. Or should I get a different filter (I have a HOB filter now) that won't take up room at the back of the tank? At any rate I think we're going to HD this weekend so I'm going to at least see what they have.

 

[gale]

if not careful, some of that BG algae you were helping me with on my thread.

OH that reminds me!! I think I figured out why my BG algae went away. I inadvertently od'd my tank on silver. It's supposed to be 5-10 drops per 5 gallon (so 1-2 drops per gallon) and I put in 1 tsp for 5 gallon. So I had about 20 times too much in there-and that's around the time the BG algae went away. It didn't hurt my fish but it may have caused ammonia spikes by killing some of my good bacteria (I didn't test it because I did 50% water changes every 2 days and when I was done I put some filter media from my other tank in there and the next day the readings were fine).

Still I think Maracyn is the better choice.

 

[FoundMoney]

If I did this, would I still have room to open the tank? I'm afraid there isn't enough room up there.

I have a 30 gallon tank (36" long) and it came with a light fixture that contained two 25 watt flourescent bulbs. At 1.7 wpg I was having some trouble growing some plants. So I added a smaller 20 watt fixture to get 2.3. I think this is adequate because if I added more light the plants would probably need more CO2 to take advantage of it.

Anyway, there there really isn't any room to open the tank. The extra light sits on top of the cover and when I want to open the tank I have to move the smaller light. I usually just put it on top of the big light. It's not the greatest solution but it works. Anyway, most of the time the top is closed and it gives a more even distribution of light in the tank.

 

[NikkiY]

I have a 30g tank and it comes with 2 20W lights. The canopy is the Hagen's Light-Glo. I am thinking to add two compact flourescent right at the middle. It will give at most 1.5" clearance from the water surface. What is a safe clearance between the water surface and the light?

Nikki

 

[gale]

Anyway, there there really isn't any room to open the tank. The extra light sits on top of the cover and when I want to open the tank I have to move the smaller light. I usually just put it on top of the big light. It's not the greatest solution but it works. Anyway, most of the time the top is closed and it gives a more even distribution of light in the tank.

OK then if I did something like this I would have to buy a new cover too. Mine has a clear part where the light fixture fits on and the other part is a hinged door. If I put a light on that it wouldn't shine through since it's not clear. Crud. I was hoping I could buy a whole new fixture of some kind to just replace the one I have rather than add to it, but not spend so many $$ on it.

I really don't need a ton of light, but I would love to have 2 wpg so I could at least grow the lo-light plants well. I might just have to get a lot of anubias and java fern.

 

[gwlee7]

one of the all glass hoods that fits 29 gal and 20 longs only costs about $20.00

my 29 has the same area as a 20 long. However, I thnk FoundMoney's idea is best b/c he is staying at a moderate light level and may be able avoid the CO2

Since the 20 long is "short" height wise, the light intensity will still be stronger.

 

[gale]

How about this? It holds two bulbs so instead of 1 wpg I would have 2 wpg right? But one question-it says 30" but is the fixture itself 30" or the bulbs??

nm I looked at drsfoster&smith and it gives a better description. The 30" is the fixture size. So how wide is it? I might call someone and find out.

 

[Angry_Platy]

The fixture is 30inches....

 

[FoundMoney]

How about this? It holds two bulbs so instead of 1 wpg I would have 2 wpg right? But one question-it says 30" but is the fixture itself 30" or the bulbs??

That would probably be your best bet. However, I don't know how wide it is. The fixture is 30" but the bulbs themselves are actually 24". The bulbs are 20 watts each so it gives you 2 watts per gallon.

If you want to add more than one light fixture you might want to get a new glass top: http/www.all-glass.com/products/hoods/index.html.

I know the money starts adding up quickly and as gwlee7 suggested, maybe you should try the home depot, as anything labeled "aquarium" seems to jack up the price. I would have never gotten into this hobby if I hadn't FoundMoney!

 

[gale]

hmm I got a very short email from all-glass saying their stuff doesn't interchange with perfecto, which is what I have now. So I'll have to get a new hood too. I'll check home depot first but I would prefer to keep it at one fixture so I'll probably end up getting the hood and fixture both. Bummer.

All glass also has a triple light fixture but I don't want to mess with co2 so I'll stick with 2 wpg.

 

[gale]

Called petsmart to make sure and the all glass light is an inch too wide. So I checked perfecto and they do make a strip light with 2 tubes that will fit my hood but it's like pulling teeth to find anyone online that carries it. One place has it on their site but it shows unavailable. So I'm going to have to call some of the perfecto distributors and see where I can get it locally.

Sheesh all this in pursuit of non-leggy plants.

 

[FoundMoney]

Yeah, it drove me a little nuts trying to get decent lighting for my aquarium. Like you, all I wanted was 2 watts per gallon so I could grow a few low maintenance plants. It seems like aquarium manufacturers and suppliers just don't cater to the casual aquarium gardener. I guess the average fishkeeper doesn't care all that much about plants so they don't bother to make their "kits" plant friendly. What I ended up doing was buying a full All Glass hood (since that's the make of aquarium I have) with a single strip light in it. I just took the strip light out and put the hood away. Believe it or not this was cheaper than buying an All Glass single strip light by itself.

I had a friend who used to keep fish when we were younger and he did it for quite some time. However, when I told him I wanted to have live plants he was shocked. He wanted to know why I wanted to do "all that work!". Really, aside from trimming the plants, setting the lights on a timer and picking out some dead leaves from time to time, there really isn't a lot of work. You have to clean the tank anyway so it doesn't really add to the time to maintain it, and I'm convinced plants help with water quality a lot. The fish seem to like it, too!