Best Lighting for a planted tank

[aclockworkorange]

No im not using C02 as of now, and if I did, it would just be one of the simple yeast-sugar reaction systems with a cheap diffusion pump, i dont have the funds to set up a full fledged co2 system. The plants I have now are low light, but I want to add swords and some kind of ground cover, so I would like the option to have high light plants. Right now My plant stock is java fern, anubias nana, a couple wendtii crypts, and some java moss.

In my 20 gallon in my signature (no longer running, I moved those fish over to a 33 gallon to do a high tech setup), I had anubias nana, java fern, wendtii crypts (pretty sure there's a different name for those), a compact amazon sword, and baby tears. I ran the coralife fixture I linked you to. I fertilized with flourish and flourish gravel tabs.
Here's my experience with those:
-Java fern, nana, did grow slowly
-Crypt grew very well
-Sword grew very slowly, but it did grow
-Baby tears looked like it was doing ok, then seemed to just die off

I then began adding flourish excel, a liquid carbon supplement. I experienced vigorous growth with my java fern and sword. That would be my recommendation for you if you aren't ready to do a pressurized co2 setup yet, but I would begin saving for one. Once I put in pressurized co2, every took off like crazy, it was much easier to regulate, and convinced me to do a high tech planted tank.
I will never do another tank focused on plants that isn't high tech. I still have plants in my other fish based tanks that I don't do anything to.

 

[fishbum]

Ill probably employ some snails for algae if it gets out of hand, but the last thing I want to do is spend 200 bucks on a c02 system

If you have algae,finding out what is out of balance and fixing it,would be better than adding something to eat it.

A pressurized CO2 system does not need to be horribly expensive. Look for used bottles on Craigslist.And check the classified on forums for used equipment. You can also build a regulator,and reactor.

Dwarf tears are kind of a pain. I would go with something easier to grow for ground cover.

^agree^

 

[aclockworkorange]

If you have algae,finding out what is out of balance and fixing it,would be better than adding something to eat it.

A pressurized CO2 system does not need to be horribly expensive. Look for used bottles on Craigslist.And check the classified on forums for used equipment. You can also build a regulator,and reactor.

Agreed. I got mine off a fellow MFK member locally.

I have a secret... I usually try to get a little bit of algae growth in my tank for my BN pleco to munch on. Don't tell anyone.

 

[honda237]

here is what i use:
http://fishneedit.com/
I use their t-5 fixture, their pretty cheap, but work great, and their customer service is amazing.

I would also get some root tabs from this guy, they do wonders for your plants. i also dose with his liquid ferts.
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/swap-n-shop/120281-fs-rootmedic-black-friday-blowout-now.html

In the future i would start to switch over to co2, you could always do a paintball co2 setup, they are cheaper but won't last as long as the 5lb tanks.

 

[keydiver]

Yeah I have a fishneedit fixture on a planted marine tank, just don't want to switch out the bulbs, trying to avoid that.

As far as fertilizer goes, I was thinking this would suffice
http://www.pfertz.com/mediumtechplus.html

Anybody have any experience with pfertz?

Gonna see whats up on black friday, scout around, maybe somebody has a fixture for cheap

 

[keydiver]

bump

 

[keydiver]

alright just to double check, im going to be getting a 42w t5 coralife fixture, and im going to go with pfertz for fertilizer. Does anybody have any negative opinions of better suggestions for these?