Nubster's 75g log

Nubster

Well...looks like it's just a case of marketing. According to this chart, the bulbs are in fact just 6500k.

Byron

The specs in your last post are for the Daylight tube, the one I originally suggested would work. The "GE Plant and Aquarium" tube you initially mentioned is a different tube, and according to what I did find it has a colour temp of 3500K which is much different. I would assume it is much less intensity too; every one of the so-called plant/aqwuarium tubes I have ever seen was half the intensity of the full spectrum/daylight type.

Wide spectrum is not full spectrum. The daylight is closer to full.

Nubster

Well...I do have the plant and aquarium bulbs. I took the model number directly off the bulb and searched it and found that. The F32T8/D/ECO is on my bulb. They were packaged as plant and aquarium bulbs at Wal-Mart. Regardless...I'll be grabbing some 6500k bulbs next time I am in town and hopefully a few plants too if my LFS has some stuff that isn't total rubbish and/or insanely priced.

Byron

It may be that the daylight tube got in the aquarium/plant package? Photos can be deceptive, but I mentioned previously that the light in the photos looked good, and it looks a lot more like 6500K than 3500K, so that makes sense.

Nubster

Its quite possible. But yeah...I'm sold on the 6500k lights. I am hoping to grab some new bulbs and plants tomorrow...hopefully some fish this weekend.

Nubster

Got a little aquascaping done today...still pretty bare but hopefully I can get some more driftwood in there and some plants this week. Not sure why it look hazy...might be the lights needing replaced, might be the water needing polished, could be the inside of the glass needs scrubbed. I'd kinda like to build up the right side...make it kinda cliff like with some nooks and crannies. Leave the center open except for plants...maybe some smaller wood pieces, and the left is alright...might try to find a branchy piece of wood to stick in that area for plants to grow up through and around...the rocks form a cave area with a few entrances. I am open to suggestions too so don't be shy.

Byron

"Haze" or cloudiness is normal in new tanks. It has several causes, but the main thing is, do not try to fix it. Water clarifiers are toxic to fish, and even though no fish are present yet, you don't want toxins in the water. And if it is a bacterial bloom, which is likely, a water change will worsen it; you can read more on this in my article on bacteria in the Freshwater Article section of the forum.

Sometimes my new setups clear in a few days, sometimes it takes a few weeks.

Nubster

Yeah...I certainly wouldn't use any chemicals to fix it. I also don't want to do water changes now and set back my cycle. The ammonia is pretty low at this point at .5ppm. I took the shrimp out yesterday but I may need to put it back in. That or I need to head over to an Ace hardware and see if I can get some pure ammonia to keep feeding my little bacteria buddies. I want to make sure I have a high enough bacteria count so I can add a small school of fish (6-7) all at once.

Byron

I believe plants are intended...if so, select some plants and plant it. Forget the ammonia. Once there are some plants, introduce a few small fish, something you want but that is not super sensitive. The plants assimilate the ammonia as ammonium and you will not even notice a "cycle." Fast growing plants are best, swords, Vallisneria, stem plants and floating plants work well.

Calmwaters

I agree with Byron add lots of plants then add fish. If you are interested in buying plants on line alot of us use sweetaquatics.com and aquariumplants.com. I have used both and have been very pleased with both places sweetaquatics is a little cheaper but sometimes they can take a while to hip them.