Bare bones 10 gal planted - questions

[thunderchicken]

Good luck with your tank! You've received some great responses but the one thing I would add is that sand proved to be my downfall in a planted tank. At first things went fine and I had DIY CO2 so the plants were growing like crazy, but I didn't seed the substrate with root tabs (as someone suggested), the sand ended up choking the roots of my plants, and I got dead spots in the sand which added up to anaerobic bacteria. Perhaps this was b/c I had a deep sandbed and the tank was much larger than what you are doing. Just be careful. If it were me--I'd go to the trouble of getting some flourite instead. Can't wait to see pics.
Also--I second that no natural light thing--only brings algae. AND, amano shrimp are great for a set up like yours.

 

[Sab_Fan]

Also--I second that no natural light thing--only brings algae. AND, amano shrimp are great for a set up like yours.

there are conflicting views on this, and I have read articles by planted-tank keepers who think natural sunlight is the best way to go . . . since I have seen algae grow in pretty much any planted tank, my main advice would be to keep an eye on it

 

[Lissaspence]

there are conflicting views on this, and I have read articles by planted-tank keepers who think natural sunlight is the best way to go . . . since I have seen algae grow in pretty much any planted tank, my main advice would be to keep an eye on it

I will. This is the place where I can enjoy it the most though so I'm going to be stubborn and give it a try. If things start to go bad I'll move it.

 

[jcardona1]

here's my old low tech 10g. it was super simple and cheap. HOB filter, $20 desk lamp from home depot, and flourish excel added daily. id be cautious on leaving the tank by a window. may turn into an algae farm. definitely use Excel everyday. and i would try a bulb thats rated between 6000-10,000k, it's said to be the best spectrum for freshwater plants.

 

[m1ste2tea]

and i would try a bulb thats rated between 6000-10,000k, it's said to be the best spectrum for freshwater plants.

I do not know where you got your information but im pretty sure that anything as high or even close to 10,000k is useless for the plants themselves and serves only to help keep the tank colored better as 6000K bulbs tend to have a blue hue to them.

natural sunlight has a correlated light color temperature 6700K

in general I am concerned about dissemination of wrong information regarding planted tank lighting. Plants and the green chlorophyll pigment that is used by the cells to absorb light tends to like color temperatures that are close, either side of the green light in the spectrum, reds and blues.

althought this image relates absorption to the color wavelength rather than the overall color temperature it still serves to illustrate my point. It is a good rule of thumb to look for bulbs that have a similar wavelength output, some bulbs have this sort of diagram on the packaging, other companies sometimes post this information online, and I even found some independent reviews that posted their own wavelength findings online.

 

[jcardona1]

I do not know where you got your information but im pretty sure that anything as high or even close to 10,000k is useless for the plants themselves and serves only to help keep the tank colored better as 6000K bulbs tend to have a blue hue to them.

natural sunlight has a correlated light color temperature 6700K

in general I am concerned about dissemination of wrong information regarding planted tank lighting. Plants and the green chlorophyll pigment that is used by the cells to absorb light tends to like color temperatures that are close, either side of the green light in the spectrum, reds and blues.

althought this image relates absorption to the color wavelength rather than the overall color temperature it still serves to illustrate my point. It is a good rule of thumb to look for bulbs that have a similar wavelength output, some bulbs have this sort of diagram on the packaging, other companies sometimes post this information online, and I even found some independent reviews that posted their own wavelength findings online.

i always laugh at people that love to regurgitate information they read online or in their science books, without any real life evidence to back it up. you can use all the cute little charts you like, but i speak from REAL LIFE experience.

this is my 55g, using 4x 10,000k bulbs. now what was that you were saying about how awful 10,000k lighting is for freshwater plants?

 

[punk-in-drublic]

i always laugh at people that love to regurgitate information they read online or in their science books, without any real life evidence to back it up. you can use all the cute little charts you like, but i speak from REAL LIFE experience.

this is my 55g, using 4x 10,000k bulbs. now what was that you were saying about how awful 10,000k lighting is for freshwater plants?

View attachment 505481

That tank is beautiful. What kind of fixture is that it looks dead sexy.

 

[jcardona1]

That tank is beautiful. What kind of fixture is that it looks dead sexy.

thanks! it's made by Catalina Aquarium, theyre real popular in the planted tank/reef world for high quality fixtures at a low cost. loved the fixture so much i bought another one for the 57g rimless tank im working on. nice thing is theyre 10min from me so i can just drive to their shop and pick one up

http://catalinaaquarium.com/

 

[m1ste2tea]

i always laugh at people that love to regurgitate information they read online or in their science books, without any real life evidence to back it up. you can use all the cute little charts you like, but i speak from REAL LIFE experience.

this is my 55g, using 4x 10,000k bulbs. now what was that you were saying about how awful 10,000k lighting is for freshwater plants?

its a nice tank, but you're still wasting a lot of electricity.

 

[Sab_Fan]

I decided some time ago not to argue with Jcardona about planted tanks . . . in the real world, if something works, it works . . .

personally, I like to mix 6700 and 10K bulbs, but when I cannot get a mix I go with straight 6700K . . .