# Help with lighting and plants



## Shattered (Feb 13, 2008)

Hello,

I would like to try my hand at at Central American Biotope; here is what I gathered that I will need: Since this is my first planted tank I wanted to keep it on the smaller side.

I will be building my own hood, using two fluorescent tube (T8/15w) fixtures. Where can I get the bulbs for this? I tried Home Depot, Rona and a few other places but no luck on the 6500k bulbs. Will this be enough lighting or too much?

The tank will be lightly planted, with one or two on each side, along with a large piece of driftwood in each corner.

How much substrate would I need? Since I want to just plant the sides, in order to make it look like a cutaway view of a river, with open water in the middle.

Tank: 12Gal (24x12x12)

Plants:
Sagittaria subulata
Ludwigia repens
Vallisneria spiralis
Echinodorus osiris
Riccia fluitans

Decoration:
Rocks or cobbles

Fish: Platies

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Forgot to add, my inspiration came from here: http://www.aquariusweb.qc.ca/docs_en/biotopes.php#60litres (scroll down to CA biotope)


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## dekstr (Oct 23, 2007)

Shattered said:


> Hello,
> 
> I would like to try my hand at at Central American Biotope; here is what I gathered that I will need: Since this is my first planted tank I wanted to keep it on the smaller side.
> 
> ...


Hey shattered,

Great to see more planted tank keepers!

Central American biotope is a great one to start a planted tank on.

I think a 24x12x12 tank dimension is 20gallon high, not 12 gallons.
There's a very rough rule of thumb for lighting amounts based on watts per gallon (wpg). It's less reliable for tanks smaller/larger than 20-50gallons. But it seems to be a good indicator of the amount of lighting. Around 1-1.5 wpg is considered low lighting, 1.5-2.5wpg is moderate, and 3wpg+ high lighting.

The amount of light is kind of like the gas pedal to a car. The more light the faster the plant growth as to the more you step on the pedal the faster the car moves. Nutrients and CO2 are to plants as gasoline is the fuel for cars. The more light you have, the more nutrients you will need to feed the hungry plants.

I used to use T8 18" 15w bulbs for my 24"x12"x12" tank before too. There might be a 6500k bulb by Philips that sold at Home Depot. They label it as "Daylight" bulb. You can see a chart at Home Depot in the lighting section for different kelvin temperatures of Kelvin fluorescent bulbs.

With 2 of those tubes, you will be using about 30w of light (assuming good relectors), so that's 30w/20g = 1.5wpg. That is low-moderate lighting. CO2 addition is not neccessary but will add greatly to plant growth rate. Fertilizer you can supplement occassionally to avoid any nutrient deficiencies.

Plants will grow at a slow, steady rate.

As for substrate amount, here is a really good substrate calculator that is really good. Two inches of overall substrate is what most planted tanks use. You can slope the substrate with more towards the back of the aquarium to make look it a lot deeper (great illusion). So kind of like 3" at the back and 1" near the front or something like that.

I would tell you to plant more densely to start with in the beginning. Why? This will help you avoid any algae from getting a headstart on your plants. With lots of fast-growing stem plants, they will uptake nutrients faster than the algae


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## Shattered (Feb 13, 2008)

Thanks for the informative reply; 

The Phillips bulbs are the ones I'm looking for but Homey or Rona do not carry them, or if they do not in my location. I'm trying to find a supplier that carries these bulbs and won't charge the BigAl's 18.99$ a piece. 

I'm saying that it's 12 Gal because I used a 5 gallon US water jug to fill. It took two full ones and 2/3's to fill it.

Another quick question; How high should my lights be from the water?


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## dekstr (Oct 23, 2007)

How high it should be up from the water surface: As long as the light covers the entire tank and won't from water damage from splashes. It's not too important, a matter of personal preference. You don't want it nearly touching the water, and not so high it lights up the room instead of the aquarium. 

$18.99 is a really steep price for an 18" T8! Personally I do not think there is that much of a difference between standard mass-produced fluorescent tubes and specific aquarium-brand tubes. The aquarium-plant specific tubes might be slightly better as they match the PAR rating more closely, but for the price it is hardly worth it. I think a standard 18" T8 tube is around $4-6. 

As for the size of your aquarium, the correct volume is 100% based on the interior dimension of your tank.


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## dekstr (Oct 23, 2007)

Sorry I think it could be a 10 gallon. Standard dimension for 10 gallons is 20" x 10" x 12" I think.


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## Shattered (Feb 13, 2008)

Found the bulbs at Torbram, for 3.78 a piece, much better. 

I will be building a hood for the tank, and using some plexi to protect the bulbs from water.


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