Hello

My name is jen and I'm new to planted tanks. I'm pretty terrified, but hey what in life that is worth doing isn't terrifying at first?

So on that note, here is my first question:

I bought and set up a brand new 20 gallon tank in march of this year and happily every fish I bought is still alive but my plants have not faired quite as well. Thru forum reading I found out that I needed better light so the first chance I had I rushed out and bought a new light. It has two bulbs in it, a coralife 6700k bulb and a coralife colormax bulb. Upon opening the box the directions/ info sheet was dropped on the floor and my kittens made off with and shredded it while I was messing with the tank. So now i have very little information on these lights. I looked em up on the internet but it was just a sales site I found and it didn't tell me what I was working with. What I am trying to find out is if this light turns my tank into a high light or low light tank and if I need Co2 now. if anyone has had any expereince with these lights your input would be greatly appreciated.

If it is a 24" then you should have 2 65W power compacts (are these dual power compacts ? ) so that is 130 watts of light or 6.5 watts per gallon on a fairly shallow tank. Even with only 1 light on that's quite a bit of light. The spectral output of either bulb is fine, but that particular fixture could easily light a 47gal. column (This is exactly what I have on mine, but with 2 6700K bulbs). The lights switch individually so I'd probably just go with the colormax for the time being, and does EI parameters, but with that much output you will want to dose on the high side. Do you have tanked Co2 ? You'll be wanting it with that much light. Personally I'd look into getting a 33H aquarium, and set the colormax for 10 hours, and the 6700K for 5 hours at mid day. That would put the wattage right around 2 wpg W/ a 4 wpg High noon mid day spike. Just a thought. HTH Prof M

It is in fact 24". the bulbs themselves are are two different wattages one being 65 watts, the colormax when I loked it up on the coralife site said it was 14 watts. I checkled out my fixture and unless I modify its both lights on or nothing as they don't have a seprate switch. As of right now I do not have Co2. I am looking into it as we speak now because at the moment I have none.

Something isn't right with the bulbs. Unless one bulb is a "moon light" and the other a CF bulb, they can't be that different in wattage. Are they the coiled, screw in type bulb? Or, are the a 4 pin plug in bulb, with the tube(s) forming a single loop, long and two tubes wide?

For a CO2 system, one good supplier is Rex Griggs, at Rex's CO2 regulators and stuff. He is just another aquarium keeper, who does this largely as a service to the rest of us. His CO2 stuff isn't the least expensive, but those who have used his stuff all say it is top rate. I have a solenoid and check valve from him and both are very good.

I'm afraid I am completely unfamiliar W/ this model then. Mine has two individual switches on the end cap.

Let me back up and say that It's unlikely I would ever buy another Coralife fixture, or probably just about any strip light for that matter.

One of the best perks about this board is that the advice you recieve here isn't skewed buy any retail interest. You may not always like what you hear, but it will be honest, and straight forward !

There are a small group of High Integrity, Reliable purveyors recognized in the community that come to mind, because they are hobbiest like ourselves that simply ran out of patience with Misinformation, and Half Baked retail products, Stood their ground, and struck out on their own.

Rex Griggs Rex's CO2 regulators and stuff

AH Supply Compact Fluorescent Lighting Kits

Greg Watson Aquarium Plant and Aquatic Plants - Greg Watson's Guide to Dosing Strateges

Alan & Julia Kaufmann Aquarium Plant Food - hobbyist taking care of hobbyist … | Planted Aquarium Fertilizer

Bill KH Standard

and of course Tom Barr http://www.barrreport.com/

Most of us here can attribute a good portion of our success to any or ALL of them.

This might be a very good time to contact AH Supply and purchase "The Right Lights" and canopy for your tank. You may discover that they actually cost less than the Coralife, and "WILL" exceed their performance for your individual needs.

A few of us found this out the hard way, and we'd sure hate to see someone else repeat the drill !

Here we have a novice plant grower and we are steering her in the direction of high tech lights and injected CO2, with all of the attending complexities that they bring.

That is fine, if she wants to make that investment of several hundred dollars and a certain amount of labor just to grow aquatic plants.

But there is an alternative, one that will also grow healthy aquatic plants at a much lower cost with less effort, and maybe increase the chances of her being in the hobby a year from now.

I use $25 strip lights and a soil substrate. My plants grow well and my fish are happy, and I don't have to spend a lot of time dosing, pruning, and posting questions about algae outbreaks.

I would never pay Big Al or anyone else $125 to get lighting (although by all accounts Big Al is a quality vendor).

This site has a bias toward hi tech plant growing. And that is fine - I am a lifetime member here. But I refer Jen to the El Natural forum at APC for more info on another approach. http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/el-natural/

Good luck, Jen!

Bill

Bill, Tom posts regularly about non-CO2, low light methods here. And, he is more and more recommending that we try those methods.

My next tank setup will be with a soil/Soilmaster substrate, low CO2 and low fertilizing rate, with moderately low light. I think the more of us who try such lower light tank methods, the more we can recommend them to others.

I plan to do a thread here to chronicle my efforts, but all I have done so far is collect dirt!

Vaughn,

Yes, Tom often posts on lower light methods. And you post more than he does, and just about always on the mark.

In this case, the only advice that Jen got was to go the high tech route, and I wanted to be sure that she knew that there was an alternative.

Bill

Yes, Of course, You're right, How very presumptuous of me. Terribly Sorry ! Won't happen aqain sir. Thanks for covering that.

This site does not have any such bias, some of the folks here do, but I'm not one of them, nor is Greg Watson.

In general, all sites' membership tend to have such bias if you want to be honest about it, except perhaps Rhonda's(Gupp's).

I'm very much a Non CO2 user and have been for about 30 years.
I've been successful at both algae issues and scaping.
Both soil based and inert based sediments.

I think the bias in our assumptions can get the better of us all.
I try to be aware, but the best way to do so is to simply have a nice non CO2 tank.

They are not hard, nor costly.
And once set up, they are easier than any of the other methods.

I have a simple method for non CO2 on the Estimative index forum here.
There's some discussion.
Give that a read and if you have further questions, I can answer any on this method or your goals and rational for it.

I think asking what the person's goal is, then applying a method and giving them the trade offs avoids bias and assumptions.

We often times can bull dog folks into high light, CO2, dosing etc, when it may not be even remotely their goal.

I've been on an anti high light kick lately(perhaps the last decade actually) and every so often I'll start in on telling the high tech folks to try out a nice non CO2 tank etc.

It'll actually get more folks involved in plants if you promote both and not just one method for CO2(excel would be a 3rd option).

I've posted a number of nice non CO2 tank examples.

Regards,
Tom Barr