Couple plant questions and plants for a 10g

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T

Tstove15

Gambusia
MFK Member
Apr 5, 2009
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Smokey Dungeon
I might a 10g soon to make it into my first planted tank. I have a couple questions on lighting...I read the sticky that said that the wattage doesnt matter? but i didnt understand the point trying to get across lol. I am looking to get around 2.5 - 3.5 wpg. Does that mean that low light plants would not thrive in a higher light tank?

and can i also be suggested some plants? its going to be a low tech set up.

and

Would dwarf hairgrass work for me?

Thanks
 
Watts per gallon is a really rough guide. Light is more than just energy expenditure.

That being said, there are a few different types of lights, and for a 10 gal, you can get some really intense ones for cheap. So the question is, what do you want to do and how much of your time do you want it to take?
 
I want to have a carpet plant like dwarf hairgrass or microswords. In the tank i will have some driftwood and probaly some bigger swords in the back. All i want is mabye one ram and a couple of neons or cardinals with some driftwood...What do you mean by time? I dont care when the fish go in as long as the tank looks really nice with a carpet and other plants
 
The light level determines the growth rate.


So, some plants grow really slow in low light, but
...can be described as an epidemic...
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in higher light. It all depends on how much trimming you are willing to do. On the other hand, impatient people or those who hate cleaning algae (algae can't compete as well in high tech, WITH FAST GROWING STEMS or at least some people say) would appreciate high light. With high light comes high responsibility. You will want to inject CO2 after a certain point, plus adding fertilizer will be required in a high tech densely planted tank...

Then there are the ones that just plain grow slow no matter what.

At 2.5-3 WPG dwarf hairgrass will do OK. Microswords might, who knows. WPG isn't accurate at small tank volumes. 2 watts per gallon on a ten gallon is really low. 4 isn't HIGH so to speak, because it is only 40 watts. Some people go to six watts per gallon on the nanos. But that would be necessary only for things like Tonina sp. or something

Your layout sounds fine, but an amazon sword would fill the ENTIRE TANK. Those things get a cubic foot in size. Some sort of crypticorine would work better for a tank that size maybe? (MY 2 CENTS)
 
good plants health and growth. It can be very important as many plants will grow very slowly or plateau growth without some co2
 
By time, I mean how long to you want to spend pruning, fertilizing, etc. If you go densely planted with a good amount of light you're talking almost daily dosing (daily if you go with the EI method, highly recommended) and weekly pruning.

For a 10 gallon, if you've done planted tanks before I'd look at doing an HC carpet. HC is a little demanding but it's beautiful when it grows in and goes with just about any mid ground and background plants. (Hermanthus Calthritodes, this spelling is probably mangled).
 
Yep, that's going to be a lot of light. If CO2 is out of the question, you'll need to tone the lights down or you'll burn the plants up or stunt them.
 
If you don't want to do co2, maybe you can take a look at flourish excel. With just a 10 gallon tank, you could buy a big bottle of excel from Big Al's for about $30 on sale and that would last you a long time. Probably a couple of years.
 
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