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Good evening to all
I have just been given a rather awesome tank.... 18 inches wide, 18 inches length and 36 inches tall.

http://picasaweb.google.ca/lh/photo/546jNs3B6SdK4DF-a5n_q44dF9Z8s9k5Orv2I8eDcRU?feat=directlink

Being only 18 inches wide, and as the previous owner only had fake plants, the light is a 14w Powerglo.
Is it possible to do live plants in here? I was thinking jungle val or an onion bulb perhaps?

Thanks!

Gifted tanks are always the best !

That's a really tall tank for how wide it is. Pretty narrow footprint/surface area, which means you're going to have to stock it very lightly as far as the fish are concerned.

What does the fitting for the bulb look like, under the hood I mean. Is it possible to increase the light by changing out the fittings for more than just one bulb? Might require a new light cover and an all glass lid. Just trying to think of the options available to you.

From the dimensions you gave I'm getting that it's 50 gallon (us) tank. But based on the footprint you're going to want to probably stock according to 10-20 gallons. Another issue with tall tanks is that light is quickly absorbed by water. The deeper the tank the less light gets to the bottom even though to our eyes it looks 'bright'. Also, starting from red and going backwards you lose the spectrum the deeper under water you go (I hope that makes sense, I'm rereading it and an thinking it might not).

What it means to you is that you may want to stick with low light plants unless you can increase the wattage, anything under 2 watts per gallon (wpg) is generally considered 'low light'. In your case, because of the depth issue you might want to increase it to 2.5wpg. Of course how far from the light the plants are will depend on how you aquascape it.

Off the top of my head I'm thinking a nice vertical piece of driftwood, some big rocks at the bottom, and plants tied to root along the driftwood javafern, anubias are two that do well in low light and can be tied to driftwood or rock.

Some of the more low light vals should do ok especially if you can get ones that have already grown to 30" or so rather than just 12". Onion bulb never heard of but I'm not a plants expert (by a long shot!) sounds like it would be a heavy root feeder and you'd want a well established tank as well as a well established substrate.

Knowing what fish you plan on stocking the tank with might help with the decision on plants and the aquascape. IMO looks like it's a tank begging for angels.


^_^

I have kind of added a second light that rests on top of the lid, through the feeding hole. Unfortunately, both lights still rest 4 inches above the water line, so I'm not getting my hopes up.

I have just filled up with water and added some 15inch val (all we had at the store). My hope is to see if it grows any bigger when not having a shadow from some driftwood, which I'm going to add later.

The plan after that is to get a nice tall piece of driftwood and attach java fern or anubias.I'm praying something green can grow... plastic looks so... plastic. The previous owner had a jungle of plastic and silk that truly looked its age.

The plan for the fish is tentatively some loaches or possibly corys, a few angels, a nice school of smallish tetras or rasboras and some marble hatchets on top. The problem with working at a fish store means I have so many ideas at my disposal... at work today I must have changed my mind a dozen times with what I wanted in it. Thought I do admit the tank is rather perfect for angels.

I can imagine working where the fish are always there would be hard to stick to one plan!

I'd think some of the smaller loaches or corys for the bottom, small tetras and angels would be good .

Also, if you havent replaced the bulb that the tank came with that will very likely help. If you can get a reflector behind the light or even just paint it a glossy white that can help a lot too!

I think you should be fine with java and anubias, not sure how the vals will actually do, I've never kept those yet. Keep meaning to get more substrate in our amazon tank (currently about 1/4" deep )

^_^