Hello, I have been doing freshwater tanks for years but up until a week ago I never had real plants in them. Lighting always consisted of turn it on to see the fish
Basic details:
Tank size: 55 gallons - 36 long, 18 deep, 24 tall
Lighting: Corallife T5 dual lamp fixture (corallife 10,000k and PowerChrome Aquaflora 39w ) (directly on top of tank)
Filter: Eheim 2217 canister
Substrate: plain old aquarium gravel + seachem root tabs
plants: amazon swords, wisteria, sagittaria (and I need some nice foregrounders I haven't decided yet)
fish: 4x yoyo loaches, 2 balloon molly, 3x sailfin molly
ferts: I've been using some of the AquaVitro line (mineralize, carbonize, envy) and floruish excel. I meant to pick up propel instead of envy to start so I will probably need some propel soon.
photoperiod: 12 hours
Question 1: How much light do I really have?
When I was setting up my tank I took my light hood into the LFS who told me that the Actinic bulb that was in my hood currently wasn't very good for live plants. They recommended I swap to the PowerChrome Aquaflora 39w. I _THOUGHT_ that I had 39x2 watts of light I assumed (39w x2 bulbs = 78 watts / 55 gallons = 1.42 watts/gallon) from my corallife t5 dual lamp fixture. I realize that isn't a lot of light but from my research it seemed adequate for a low tech newbie. However upon investigation into ferts and co2 which led me to believe I would need more light it looks like I have a Corallief T5 dual and not a corallife t5 dual HO (high output). In the manual it shows the 36" model is 42 watts (21 per bulb). So is the 39w bulb I put in the thing only getting 21 watts each leaving me a pitiful 21x2/55=0.76 watts/gallon?
Question 2: What are some options you see?
If I could go back, I probably would have used a better substrate - I feel like I've started off at a handicap here. I like the look of natural tanks with sand as a topper but I have to contend with my wife and daughter who like their castle and fake waterfall (I suspect once their interested in my newly revived hobby dies down i can replant things a tad heavier and possibly even replace my substrate).
And a picture, as I hate all discussions of tanks without a picture
Very lightly planted for now, I really wanted to start of small and learn to grow most of my own plants.
Basic details:
Tank size: 55 gallons - 36 long, 18 deep, 24 tall
Lighting: Corallife T5 dual lamp fixture (corallife 10,000k and PowerChrome Aquaflora 39w ) (directly on top of tank)
Filter: Eheim 2217 canister
Substrate: plain old aquarium gravel + seachem root tabs
plants: amazon swords, wisteria, sagittaria (and I need some nice foregrounders I haven't decided yet)
fish: 4x yoyo loaches, 2 balloon molly, 3x sailfin molly
ferts: I've been using some of the AquaVitro line (mineralize, carbonize, envy) and floruish excel. I meant to pick up propel instead of envy to start so I will probably need some propel soon.
photoperiod: 12 hours
Question 1: How much light do I really have?
When I was setting up my tank I took my light hood into the LFS who told me that the Actinic bulb that was in my hood currently wasn't very good for live plants. They recommended I swap to the PowerChrome Aquaflora 39w. I _THOUGHT_ that I had 39x2 watts of light I assumed (39w x2 bulbs = 78 watts / 55 gallons = 1.42 watts/gallon) from my corallife t5 dual lamp fixture. I realize that isn't a lot of light but from my research it seemed adequate for a low tech newbie. However upon investigation into ferts and co2 which led me to believe I would need more light it looks like I have a Corallief T5 dual and not a corallife t5 dual HO (high output). In the manual it shows the 36" model is 42 watts (21 per bulb). So is the 39w bulb I put in the thing only getting 21 watts each leaving me a pitiful 21x2/55=0.76 watts/gallon?
Question 2: What are some options you see?
If I could go back, I probably would have used a better substrate - I feel like I've started off at a handicap here. I like the look of natural tanks with sand as a topper but I have to contend with my wife and daughter who like their castle and fake waterfall (I suspect once their interested in my newly revived hobby dies down i can replant things a tad heavier and possibly even replace my substrate).
And a picture, as I hate all discussions of tanks without a picture
Very lightly planted for now, I really wanted to start of small and learn to grow most of my own plants.