Total disaster waiting to happen, or good money saver?

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jclyde13

jclyde13

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Jun 18, 2009
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Louisville, KY
I decided to add a couple plants to my 25 gallon grow-out, a while back, but it quickly went from "a couple plants" to a full planted tank... Now I'm thinking about lighting upgrades, but I'm a college student and I don't have $200 to blow on a high end T5HO or LED fixture, but I came across an idea to use brooder lamps with cheap 26W CFL bulbs as an economical alternative... So I'm thinking about getting two of these brooder lamps for about $20 and ditching my current light strip. The thing I'm worried about is the possibility that two 26W CFL's might be serious overkill and turn my aquarium into an algae farm. Thoughts? :nilly:
 
It may be worth noting that I currently do not have a CO2 system, but I am fertilizing with root tabs and API Leaf Zone.
 
Hello; I have yet to buy an expensive ligh fixture such as you mentioned. I have grown many aquatic plants over the decades without such lights and without CO2.

I recently modified two light fixtures to take the screw in LED bulbs and replaced the fluorescent tubes. So far, around six months, this is working well. I am using 60 watt equivalent LED's in the daylight range. Plants are growing ok.

I already had an issue with the slime algae in one of the tanks. My take is that with enough light and nutrients to grow plants, then some algae will grow as well.

In the past I have used incadescent bulbs, tube fluorescent bulbs and CFL bulbs. They have all grown plants.

Whatever you rig up, be aware of the shock hazard. I have rigged various lights at times. Shop lights and such.

Good luck
 
jclyde13 said:
What would you say is the highest wattage I could go with, without being excessive?
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Hello; Your initial post mentioned two 26 watt CFL's. Why not try them for a while.

I ran (4) four 13 watt CFL's on a 20 gallon long a few years back. I liked the light coverage but it did tend to encourage some algae. I tried some different time peroids of light and dark and that was effective. I used a timer to regulate how long the lights were on. Say start at 12 hours on and 12 off. Then 14 on and 10 off and so on. some will depend on the plants.

I also tried various combinations of CFL's being on. From two to three to four.

The picture in my avatar is from that tank. There are a number of ways to run tanks and not all require the use of the more expensive equipment. I went thru many times of having to run tanks on the cheap, but it can be done.

Good luck
 
as long as you are not going with high light plants you can use 2 13watt 6500k cfl bulbs with those clip on lights from home depot
 
skjl47 said:
Hello; Your initial post mentioned two 26 watt CFL's. Why not try them for a while.

I ran (4) four 13 watt CFL's on a 20 gallon long a few years back. I liked the light coverage but it did tend to encourage some algae. I tried some different time peroids of light and dark and that was effective. I used a timer to regulate how long the lights were on. Say start at 12 hours on and 12 off. Then 14 on and 10 off and so on. some will depend on the plants.

I also tried various combinations of CFL's being on. From two to three to four.

The picture in my avatar is from that tank. There are a number of ways to run tanks and not all require the use of the more expensive equipment. I went thru many times of having to run tanks on the cheap, but it can be done.

Good luck
Click to expand...
Alright, thank you. I do typically run my lights for about 12 hours per day though, just out of habit, but I guess I could try to adjust if I need to.

flukekiller said:
as long as you are not going with high light plants you can use 2 13watt 6500k cfl bulbs with those clip on lights from home depot
Click to expand...
Well, I am trying to grow dwarf hairgrass (I say "trying" because at this point, my green severum has obliterated 95% of it, and I haven't been able to find any way to prevent the remaining 5% from suffering the same fate), but I've been finding very mixed opinions on what sort of setup it needs. I've seen some people say it does fine in low-medium light without CO2, just with a slower growth rate, but then I've seen other people suggest that high light and CO2 are a must. That being said, at this point, I'm not sure it is going to last long enough to even matter.
 
Found a deal on ebay for sixteen 23W 5000k bulbs for less than $0.70 each and jumped on it. Paid $20 for the fixtures on Amazon, so it looks like I'm all set.
 
you aren't going to get plants growing with a green severum, anything they don't outright eat is going to be uprooted

if you want to go planted I suggest starting a planted tank with small tetras and the like and plan it out ahead of time. its much harder to take an existing fish only tank and try and slowly change it into a planted tank and you results will vary greatly
 
I have had success using low - medium light and 2 severum with onion plant and green tiger lotus. The onion plant is about 8' tall but so it goes up and across the surface and I trim it when it sticks to the overflow, green tiger lot us can be trained to stay small and compact with regular trimming.
 
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