Copious

I want to get a 6 gallon nano but I want to have everything ready before I start.

I've read that the 2 WPG rule doesn't really apply to a small aquarium but I haven't seen anyone talk much about how many WPG should be in a small aquarium.

Can someone explain how much light is needed for an aquarium this size?

anthonysquire

It would help to know what you are going to be growing. I'm not a lighting expert, especially with nanos, but the plants you are planning on using is important.

Copious

Hmmm.....wanna dance? I wasn't going to try to decide what plants to try to grow in it until I knew how much light it would take to grow some of the plants from my other aquariums.

I know that a lot of the plants in my other aquariums are going to be too big to fit in there but from what I have these should at least fit.

Dwarf hairgrass
Hemianthus micranthemoides
Corkscrew vals
Hairgrass
Rotala
Myrio Green
Myrio Red
Anabus nana

I could use any of these or go with something entirely different. I know that most of the stem plants would outgrow a six pretty fast and require a lot of trimming so I really don't know yet.

I'm going to try to hook my pressurized CO2 into there piggyback, but if that doesn't work I'm going to construct a DIY CO2 for it. It will be fertilized regularly and I'm undecided about what to do for substrate so far. I want to purchase everything at about the same time if I can.

whitetiger61

you could put you dwarf hairgrass in there..you could also use glosso or HC for a fore ground..the that requires some high light and CO2

Copious

I really appreciate the advice. What I need is a lighting guide for a nano. How much light is low, medium and high if the 2 wpg rule doesn't apply?

I don't want to purchase lights and not purchase enough, or have so much that it's a problem. It would be easier if I had a rough idea of how much light I would need from the start. I am planning to use CO2 so that's not a problem.

Purrbox

I've got 36 watts PC over my 5.5 gallon tank (about 6.5WPG) and I would say that it isn't as much as I was aiming for. It's probably only medium high to high light, instead of the very high light I wanted. Unfortunately lighting over small tanks is a bit of a guessing game, and the only real way to find out is to give something a try. Hopefully my tank will make it a little easier to guess how much to put over yours.

hoppycalif

With big tanks the shape of the light bulbs is usually optimum, and the reflectors are designed right to get the most from the bulbs. So, it is possible to make general statements about how much light to use. About the only variable that gets forgotten is the distance from the bulbs to the water.

Nano tanks are different. I notice that most of us use lights on our nano that are not made for aquarium use. For example, I use an old floor lamp I've had for several years, but which has a reflector that is about the right size for my tank. In it I use a Home Depot spiral PC bulb - a 17 watt one, since that was the biggest they had that looked like it would fit the reflector, and it is 5500K because all of the others were "warm", "cool", "daylight", which meant nothing to me. I have no idea what the effective wattage of that light is, as far as comparing it to the watts per gallon "rule". It does seem to work.

To slightly change the subject, today at Home Depot I saw some spiral PC bulbs which were mounted in what looked like flood light reflector bulb glass bulbs. The display said they were 65 watt bulbs with a PAR of 25 I think. I have no idea what all of that would mean for an aquarium, so assuming they truly are a 65 watt PAR 25 bulb, I still couldn't say what they are the equivalent of in T5 bulbs, for example.

Copious

Thank you so much purrbox and hoppycalif.

I feel a little lost trying to figure out the nanos. I guess the big advantage to creating a nano is that the cost of mistakes is lower than the cost of mistakes in larger aquariums. I was remembering how ghastly it was the first time I realized I would have to replace my lighting when I saw the cost of adequate lighting. I was pretty sure that I was going to lose a fiance, especially after it was shipped with actinic bulbs and I still had to purchase daylight bulbs

All's well that ens well though, we both love the hobby now, even if it is costlier than he was first expecting.

JoeHoetzl

FWIW, I run dual 24" t5's (28w) over my 6.6 "Bookshelf" tank.
I can't imagine running this much light without co2 and ferts, especially since I have a very low bioload in there.

On my 2.5, I run 18w - a Coralife mini freshwater.

Copious

Does that much light give you any trouble as long as you keep up with the CO2 and ferts?