Maybe I'll just plant my 20 gallon instead!!

[Steveo McNello]

I figured I can have the best of both worlds since I decided against planting my 125 and doing CO2 and all that jazz.

For my 20 I'm going to use my extra bucket of sunset gold sand for the substrate and put a couple of nice plants in it. It's going to have cory cats for sure, and anything that stays relatively small and breeds like band kids. ; )

So my question is, what should I do for lighting? Would a simple strip t5 from the pet store do the trick? After all, this tank is much smaller than my 125.

Hope I can get some pics posted when I set it up. It's going down right after my pbass get out of the 20 and into the 125.

Small planted tanks rock!

 

[WyldFya]

What kind of plants do you want to have? Lighting is dependent on what you want to have.

 

[Steveo McNello]

What kind of plants do you want to have? Lighting is dependent on what you want to have.

Probably lower maintenance stuff. Any crypts, water sprite, mexican oak leaf, valisneria[?], and some other low demanders.

 

[WyldFya]

That lighting will be fine.

 

[Steveo McNello]

That lighting will be fine.

Excellent, thank you very much. Do you recommend any certain light to buy? I have a standard sized 20 gallon long.

 

[WyldFya]

With what you are looking at for plants, I'd just run a 6700K T8 bulb.

 

[Steveo McNello]

With what you are looking at for plants, I'd just run a 6700K T8 bulb.

http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=11248153

Would this be a safe bet? They have it at my local petsmart for $69.99 for the 30"

 

[WyldFya]

Just buy a basic Life glo bulb, and put in any existing fixture.

 

[Steveo McNello]

Just buy a basic Life glo bulb, and put in any existing fixture.

Oh really? I have an oak hood on my 20 gallon, so just buy the green floralife bulb or whatever it is? That should be all I need? That's a hell of a lot cheaper haha

 

[WyldFya]

Get a life glo bulb, they have good spectrum and color peaks.