# 10 gallon planted



## j-man the skater-man (Apr 4, 2005)

i will be putting the tank in a corner of my room and i want a planted tank .

i plan to plant the tank and i wanna have good plant growth and i want to be able to grow most plants

i will be planting medium light level plants but want the option of pretty much anything i find...

my ? is can i do this with a stock 15w flourecent light,plain sand, and flourish????? 

i will only have cherry shrimp and ramshorn snails in it


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## shev (Jan 18, 2005)

No, the least you can do is buy a plant bulb. life-glo is around 6700k and will be your best choice for a 15W fixture. But even then you will have to stick to low light plants such as java fern, java moss, crypts, aponogetons, anubias and things like that.


ramshorn snails eat plants.


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## j-man the skater-man (Apr 4, 2005)

the ones i have havent touched a plant yet 

!!! what do u recomend i do to be able to grow aa large range of plants in the 10??????


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## Fishboy93 (Jun 11, 2005)

Upgrade to power compact light(pc) look on ebay thats where i got mine


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## kamili (Nov 13, 2005)

I used to have a 10 gallon plant tank that looked amazing. I don't think you can grow anything with a 15watt setup, I'm sure you can grow algae if you want. :grin: I would suggest checking out the route that I have taken in the past.....look at ahsupply.com and buy yourself a nice compact flourescent setup. It is amazing the difference you will have in just the visual light, so much brighter and more attractive. I just ordered another setup for my tank where I will be getting 110watts for a 29 gallon (3.8wpg). They will sell you a little setup that goes into your stock aquarium hood and it takes about 20 minutes to install. I think I paid somewhere in the 50 dollar range and if I had to do it again I would pay double--yes, it's that worth it.


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## DUSTIN323 (Sep 21, 2005)

bigalsonline.com has a 20" power compact for 35bucks it has like a 28 watt bulb in it here's a link
http://bigalsonline.com/catalog/product.xml?product_id=24049;category_id=1875;pcid1=1843;pcid2=


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## MyraVan (Jan 19, 2005)

kamili wrote:

"I don't think you can grow anything with a 15watt setup"

No, not true. shev gave a nice list of things that you can grow with 15W, to his list I would add dwarf sag and, if you have hard water, vallis.

shev wrote:

"ramshorn snails eat plants."

Depends on what kind of ramshorn. If it's the small ones you get for free with plants, then they don't eat plants. The big ramshorns, which are actually a close relative of the apple snail, do eat plants. See http://www.snailshop.co.uk/html/tropical_snails_14.html

j-man, your idea of "want to be able to grow most plants" probably won't cut it, as to grow most plants you must have a huge amount of light (3WPG or more) an expensive substrate, and a very good CO2 injection system. This costs a heck of alot of money and is quite complex to maintain. 

I would recommend that you keep the lighting under 2.5WPG (ie, less than 25 watts) for your first planted tank, as above 2.5WPG you generally need to add CO2 to enable the plants to use those higher levels of light. And CO2 is yet another layer of complexity, I feel you should start simple before getting into the more complex stuff.

However, even for a beginner tank I would go for a better substrate than just sand. You can pay lots of money for something like Flourite, or less money for laterite mixed with small-grain gravel, or less still for something like Schultz Aquatic plant soil, and go the very cheap route of soil + gravel. 

I've got a 10g tank with a 24W CF light, and it works really well. I have some info on that tank, and pics of it, in this thread.
http://www.fishforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=6248


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## j-man the skater-man (Apr 4, 2005)

you cant use sand and something like flourite? its really worth buying a new light source for the extra 10 watts?


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## Damon (Jan 18, 2005)

In short, yes.


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## j-man the skater-man (Apr 4, 2005)

ok another ? lighting... i have heard lots about the t-5 lighting system what is the deal with those? will they fit on stock hood? can u change the bulbs??


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## Damon (Jan 18, 2005)

T5 are identical to T8 with respect to how they work. They are thinner allowing one to put more bulbs under the same space. Very efficient and don't have dark corners like pcs do. The one "annoying" thing is the Kelvin they come in. You are limited to 6500K or 10000K. This is the ideal K range but some people think the 6500K is too yellow and the 10000K is to white/blue. I like 10000K bulbs myself. You will need a new fixture for T5 and I've never seen a 20 inch T5 striplight. Big als has great prices on PC fixtures but the bulb is a 50/50. For a 10 gallon tank this would work perfectly if you change the bulb. 

http://www.bigalsonline.com/catalog/product.xml?product_id=24049;category_id=1875;pcid1=1843;pcid2=


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## MyraVan (Jan 19, 2005)

Over here at least, T5 linear are very expensive. The bulbs are a bit more expensive than the T8s, but the controllers are much more expensive. You can get Interpet CF bulbs and controllers for much less, so that's what I go for nowadays.


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## Damon (Jan 18, 2005)

T5 (not the VHO) are cheap here. Comparable to pc or T8 lighting. But I've still never seen a 20 inch T5 fixture.


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## j-man the skater-man (Apr 4, 2005)

ok i just relized i really need to learn more on lighting than what i already know...any sites that give the basic rundown of who,what,when,where and why???


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## Fishboy93 (Jun 11, 2005)

Plantgeeks.com for plant guide and helpful forum


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## shev (Jan 18, 2005)

> "ramshorn snails eat plants."
> 
> Depends on what kind of ramshorn. If it's the small ones you get for free with plants, then they don't eat plants. The big ramshorns, which are actually a close relative of the apple snail, do eat plants. See http://www.snailshop.co.uk/html/tropical_snails_14.html


Wow thats a pretty neat site. I bet half of those snails are invasive here, too bad they look pretty cool. I thought they all ate plants.



yeah, Cf is pretty cheap. I got a used jebo 110 (2x55) watt 24 inch off ebay for only 20 bucks. you should check there jman.


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## Magdelaine (Apr 9, 2005)

I just wanted to mention that I've had some nice success with my 10 gallon and 17w regular flourescent strip light with gravel substrate...It's the pic for my avatar. Right now I have mostly Apo bulbs and crypts. Apos constantly surprise me because they are cheap (at Walmart), they grow easily and I have gotten about 4 different species, with different looks and growth habits, out of each package. If I was't concentrating on switching to a 29 gallon soon I would be adding Java Fern and Java Moss, and maybe some Anubias, to stay away from rooted plants in the gravel.


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