10G Lighting for Low Light Plants

zfarsh

I have a 10G Tank with low light plants only. I have put a standard lamp on top of the Aquarium, with a spiral 26W = 100 W Daylight fluorescent light. Is this too much? If so, pls tell me what Wattage and equivalent incandescent wattage to have. Example, 26 W = 100W, or 13 W = 60 W, etc...

Thanks in advance.

Byron

I would reduce the light. Over my 10g and 20g I have fixtures (standard tank hoods) that take two screw-in bulbs, and on both I have two 10w compact fluorescent daylight bulbs. The plants do well, algae is minimal. "Daylight" bulbs are those with a kelvin rating around 6500K. Mine are GE.

I would consider this moderate light, but you can have low light plants below with floating plants (which all fish like anyway) and it will be perfect.

Byron.

redchigh

Actually, a single 26W CFL puts out fairly close to the same amount of lumens as 2 10w CFLs..

2 10Ws- around 1300 lumens
1 26W - 1700 lumens

I use 26W bulbs or a pair of 10W bulbs over all my tens.
I also use a nutrient-rich substrate however (soil substrates).


I'd let it ride and see if you have issues or not. Really would depend on the tank IMO.

Byron

The benefit of 2 versus 1 bulb is light distribution. It avoids any "brighter" spot visually. Also, depending upon plants, their growth habits will be different. Plants grow toward the light, so spreading it out helps.

redchigh

Ah, good point.

My tanks with the 26W are in clamp on reflectors and are raised quite a bit... I didn't think of it being closer in a hood.

zfarsh

Thanks for the help guys. I have to say i am still confused on light requirement and how it works with standard spiral bulbs. Should i look at the 26 W fluorescent light as 26 W, or is it a 100 W (this is equivalence to incandescnet)? If it is 26W, then i am outputing about a 2 - 3 Watt / gallon, which i guess should be fine. My lamp is not sticking to the aquarium, has a bit of space in between, though not much. Here is the lamp i have:
IKEA | TERTIAL | Work lamp

I dont understand the two light bulb setup, do you have a pic, just wandering for design purposes and to give me new ideas.

Byron

With that fixture, a 20w CF bulb will work. That seems close to what redchigh mentioned having, he can comment further.

As for the intensity/watts thing, the CF bulbs are supposedly equivalent in intensity to the old incandescent bulbs according to the watts. For instance, my 10w CF bulbs say they give out the same light as the old 25w incandescent. Use that as a guide, a very rough guide. All I can tell you is that my two 10w bulbs over a 10g and 20g (which are not much different in surface area or depth, which is significant) are perfectly adequate. Here's of photo of the 10g at present to illustrate.

Attached Images

10g Mar 24-11.jpg (107.5 KB, 16 views)

Mikaila31

A 20watt or 26 watt will be fine. I don't suggest the two 10 watt bulbs. They will work just fine but from the sounds of it you have a single bulb fixture. I would not bother with getting a dual fixture when the single will work fine. I personally would use a 26 watt.
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