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hi i have a t5 fixture and need to get bulbs to fit it.
its a 2x54W fixture and i figure the tank will be around 40 to 45 gallon. im hoping to grow amazon swords, vals, ludwigia and im not quite sure what else to be honest!

now i was wandering do you use a combination i.e. one 6500K and one 10 000K or something similiar or do you go 2x 6500K?

im not going for the all out C02 3WPG situation and both lights would be on one switch (a feature ive only recently learned about!)

any reccomendations?

fandan,

Either or K-combination that you suggest will do, although the 10,000K and 6,500K combination will make the tank look a little whiter/blueisher while 2 x 6,500K wil be a little greener/yellowisher.

The problem in your question is the part of "... im not quite sure what else to be honest". You have to set your goals so you know what to buy. Medium vs high light plants require you to have a completely different light setup.

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

yeah fair point little fish, you may gaver i can be quite disorganised! (with quite being an understatement )

heres a question for you before i try and get a rough list of the plants i want to iclude- when you calculate the WpG ratio are you calculating to the size of the tank (ie linear dimensions) or the volume of water taking into account the substrate and all the driftwood etc?

i.e. my tank holds 190L (50g) of water when full. but then i have 3 inches of substrate and have just adeed a large peice of drift wood and a few stones- reducing the water volume to 150 L or 40 gallons.

which one do you use??

fandan,

I understand completely where you are coming from with this question. Not too long ago (ok, about 2 years ago) I raised the same question, in my case to make myself happier by assuming I have more wpg if I use the net volume of water as the base.

It is the total tank volume though, in US gallons, that is commonly used to identify the wpg of a light over a tank.

Having a 50G means that you are a little over the "average" tank size (in gallons) and as such a slightly lower wpg will grow the same plants than the wpg would in a 30G, for example. An important impact besides K rating is the tank height, tall tanks need more wpg than low tanks.

Hope this helps,

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

yeah i did a bit of investigating myself after the post and thought that would be the case! oh well- i was never aiming to go really high on my WpG, its my first planted tank and i didnt want to go over the top with regards to commitment incase i buried myself!
with regards to the plants this is a list im working around:
# 8 Corkscrew Val
# 8 Jungle Val
# 8 Contortion Vals
# 5 medium Amazon Sword
# 2 Large Red Rubin Swords
# 2 Anacharis
# 4 Cabomba
# 6 Narrow-leaf Ludwigia
# 2 Medium Ruffled Swords
# 7 potted tennellus Chain Swords
this is a atarter pack on azgardens.com frank recomended just get the ideas started.

for the medium swords i was thinking maybe a combo of tropica, ozelot and parviflorus.

and for the ruffled swords i was thinking of changing one to a red flame.

as for the ludwigia im not sure. i wouldnt mind swapping that for something i could tie onto my driftwood!

also tha cambomba i will swap for hornwart. ive got a feeling cambomba is illegal where i live (but hornwart isnt!) hopefully with anachris and hornwart i wont have to much spare nutrient algae issues.

well this is my initial plan any reccomendations to add or change?

the tank is 18inches high by the way. if i have to squeeze in another light i probably could but i want to get everything in and see how it goes first! i was thinking of going 2 6500K bulbs- i like the idea of the lower brightness.

cheers for the help
dan

fandan,

While your selection in itself does not look all that bad, and probably would be suited to your light conditions, I have a few thoughts:

- Let's say all goes well and your plants will settle and grow. You will have your work cut out with regards to trimming this jungle. 5 Amazon Swords alone will fill up your tank to the max, loads of stems (rather fast growing ones), tenellus, and vals. It sure would be a jungle, even under only 2wpg.

- In general, I cannot stress enough how important fast growers are at the beginning of a planted tank's life. All the swords would probably have to settle first before starting to grow, the vals, tenellus, and the stems will take off earlier and are good candidates. I would support them with some Wisteria and Hygro, just to get the show on the road.

Hope this helps,

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

okey- so more fast growers. i really like the look ofthe wisteria, although i was going to go for purely south american themed plants. hmmm.... although having said that im just checking those plants out on plantgeek and they would add alot more variety to the whole set up. decisions, decisions

do you have any other recommendations of south american influence?

although i was going to go for purely south american themed plants.

And there is nothing to stop you from doing that!

You, others, and myself (in the past) need to understand that your a tank does NOT have to be the shining star from the get-go. I think my nerd-folks here at FP tried to get me to understand this point for definitely more than 6 months before I even grasped the concept (call me stubborn, ). But by now, having applied this philosophy to my 40G, I know what they were talking about.

Once your tank is settled (don't confuse with cycled) then it is time to move slowly over to the permanent plants, aka your desired South American theme.

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

i understand! so not only do you have lots of beatiful fast growing stems to keep everything squeeky clean, you also have an excuse to start another tank ("sorry dear this ones south american and it would be such a shame to throw away these lovely plants...!)

good plan LF i like it!

sorry dear this ones south american and it would be such a shame to throw away these lovely plants...!

I tried that, didn't fly with my wife

I agree, it is a downside of adding fast growers in the beginning as one will eventually replace at least part of then with the permanent plants. But there is always the LFS and some online trading places where one could offer the plants, one would not make a fortune of course, but it could net some money usable for one or the other new plant.

Glad you like the plan,

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club