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I would like to try and plant a dorm tank.
What would work for the 3 tanks below?
What would the WPG be for these?

#1: http://www.petco.com/product/104565/All-Glass-Aquarium-5-Gallon-Aquarium-Kit.aspx

#2: http://www.petco.com/product/12788/Marineland-Eclipse-Hex-5-Fully-Integrated-Aquarium-Kit.aspx

#3: http://www.petco.com/product/2398/Marineland-Eclipse-System-Six.aspx

The main post is under General Freshwater under Dorm Tank.

kj fishy-finn <*)))><
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5 Gallon Album

Hi,
Before you purchase any of them note that all three use
15 watt, incandescent bulbs. These bulbs are NO GOOD
for either the plants or the fish tank. They give off
a very weak yellowish looking light, and HUGE amounts of
heat. This will cause the water temperature to climb,
at times, to dangerous levels for the fish within the
tank and do not furnish the correct light for hardy
plant growth.
Before you purchase, go to any large hardware
store such as Lowes, or Home Depot, and see if they have
the screw in fluorescent bulbs in that small a wattage.
Read the labels on the bulbs. You do NOT want one that
says "warm or cool white." They are the wrong color
temperature (degrees Kelvin) for planted tanks. If they
have SUN or DAYLIGHT in their names, then use them as they
are the correct color temperature for planted tanks.
Then see if there is enough room in the hood for one of
them. When you find a 15 watt, screw in fluorescent bulb
that fits inside the hood assembly, that is either SUNLIGHT
or DAYLIGHT, then I would purchase the Eclipse 5 gallon
system.

To figure the watts per gallon (wpg) simply total the
wattages of the bulb(s) and divide the total by the
capacity of the tank (5 Gallons) to get 3 watts per gallon.

Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

So you are saying that I would need a better light bulb which I will have to find at a hardware store?

Does anyone know if a 15W light is made that would fit into any of these tanks?

then I would purchase the Eclipse 5 gallon system

What do you mean by this?

So since the wpg would be 3, would I be able to plant plants that need more sunlight? High versus low light level plants? What sort of plants would you suggest for a setup like that?

kj fishy-finn <*)))><
20 Gallon Album
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I looked around on Home Depot's and Big Al's Online's websites and they do have some 15W fluorescent lights, but they are really long.

Does anyone know the dimensions of the bulbs in the 3 tanks?
Has anyone switched out their bulbs in one of these tanks and been able to find a light that would fit and work?

kj fishy-finn <*)))><
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On Drs. Foster and Smith I just found this light:

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3578+3733+8154&pcatid=8154

What if I were to get the MiniBow 5 gallon tank and just keep off the lid and put this over it instead?
The tank comes with filter that is separate from the hood I believe. Or I think I may have found some smaller fluorescent lights too. I would have to look again.

kj fishy-finn <*)))><
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Pretty sure those are just standard incandescent screw in bulbs, in which case you can easily get a floro for them. Just look in Homedepot, lowes, even grocery stores and target sell screw in floros.

You'll want one with a daylight rating so check around. I know you could get them at homedepot a few years ago. Most of those tanks you listed from petco probably use a smaller chandelier sized bulb, but they may use just a normal standard run of the mill CF screw in. I had a 5g with a built in light and replacing it with a CF was easy enough.

The dr fosters link, that's going to be a specialty bulb, basically just a desk lamp with a floro in it designed for a tank. Finding a replacement bulb might be a tad difficult.

^_^

Would this bulb work?

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3578+3733+8068+9870&pcatid=9870

It would only be like 2 wpg though.

kj fishy-finn <*)))><
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5 Gallon Album

Should work, but you should also be able to find the same in a hardware store. It just takes a tad bit of looking.

I know Home Depot was carrying a daylight 6,700 Kelvin bulb a few years ago, they should still have it. Never found one with the same Kelvin rating in lowes, but they may have caught up. The 6,700K is what you want for a FW tank.

Keep in mind that you're looking at doing a very small tank, IMO the 2wpg should be plenty for the tank. You'll likely need to supplement CO2, which may be a little hard using a DIY system in a dorm room.

^_^

But it would be possible to get by without the CO2 system, right?

I was assured I wouldn't need one when I started doing my 20 gallon with plants and 3wpg, which I just planted 3 weeks ago.

kj fishy-finn <*)))><
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Course you can keep plants without CO2! However you'll want to minimize your WPG. Keep it 2wpg or less, any more and you're likely to start running into algae issues.

I'd hate to see a dorm take turn bad right around finals time

^_^

OK, yeah,that would stink major time if that happened.

Just out of curiosity, are there any tricks to fighting algae in a planted tank?

kj fishy-finn <*)))><
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IME with small planted tanks, keep up with the water changes, and don't over wattage the tank if you're not running CO2.

With the smaller tanks it's easy to get too much wattage over it, and whatever the plants can't absorb the algae does.

Due to the shape of my 5g, it was difficult to do water changes (siphon was too big!) and with only a betta in there it didn't get the same attention a more heavily stocked tank would. The hornwart loved the tank, but the BGA moved in pretty quick.

^_^

Which of the 3 tanks I am looking at would be the easiest to clean in your opinion?

kj fishy-finn <*)))><
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I wouldnt say one would be easier to clean over other, however the eclipse system is going to be a 3 stadge filtration (mechanical,chemical and biological) where as the mini bow is only going to have two (chemical and mechanical). The addition of the biological filtration in the marine land would allow you to do bigger water changes with out hurting you good bacteria. When I choose a dorm tank I went with the mini bow 5. Its a planted tank with the corallife compact flourescent bulb.