Appropriate Lighting For My Tank

[pink66]

Hi all,

The LFS (yes I know what you are thinking) has done nothing but confuse me with lighting for my new tank.. Can you please assist me to get this right..

the tank is 5x2x2 - It is planted (swords, anubias, crypts, val and a fluffy one that I do not know the name of but it grows like a weed (have seen it in goldfish tanks before) - and of course has little fishies swimming about in it. I currently have a single light (supposed to be for fish and plants ??) I have the ability to put a second light in as I have the room..and if it is needed

So what would be the most appropriate lighting for my situation.. I really want the plants to do well (and I do not have a CO2 set up) but I also want the fish to be happy..

thanks in advance for helping :wink:

[TW]

If you are going to have only low light plants & no C02, then even just your standard T8's (fluro) light fitting would be fine, IMO. The plants you have (other than the fluffy one we don't know) are all low light plants.

You probably only need to up the lighting level if you decide to go down the route of higher light plants & C02.

Have a look at the plants details here http://www.plantgeek.net/plantguide.php and here www.tropica.com. These sites list the preferences various plants like, then make sure you can get these plants (not all are readily available in Aus).

If you think you might want to do hi-light or C02 in the future, plan for that now when you purchase your light. T5 High Output are greats lights & there lots available on ebay. As long as there are twin switches, so that while you only have low light plants, you can choose to put on only 1 or 2 rows, but with the additional rows available to flick on if you need them, you won't have to upgrade your light fitting later on.

I have power compacts, with twin power cords (so I can have a split lighting sequence on auto timers) but I haven't seen this option available on ebay & it's a bit more expensive.

If you buy T5's on ebay, don't make my mistake. I bought 3 T5 light fitting where the ballast only took T5 High Energy tubes. These tubes are hard to find (not impossible, but hard) & are no better or maybe worse than ordinary T8's. Make sure the add says takes T5 "High Output" tubes. If the add doesn't say, then ask.

Once you have decided about the light fitting, then you have to make sure you put the right tubes in for plants. Sometimes the tubes that come with them are artinic (sorry, spelling) or 10,000K spectrum. I don't want to bog you down with details now, you may not need. But if you need to know about tube spectrum, let us know. In Aus, it is usually enough to say plant tubes, but I notice a lot of these lights on ebay imply the 10K ones are right for plants. On their own, they're not the best - but mixed with the right spectrum, they are OK. I'm not meaning not to buy the lighting, if the free tubes aren't right. Maybe you can ask them to swap them over, or just accept you will need to at least replace the actinic ones with more suitable spectrum.

Cheers, Robyn