# plant stocking



## guppyart (Jan 22, 2005)

I just got a 15 gallon tank custom dimensions its a long and low tank only 8" deep.
I put it in my brothers room and I was wondering what I can do for lighting.
can a person use incadescent bulbs cause I have a ton of canopy lights with those bulbs that I can use.
and what kind of plants could I grow in it.
the other idea was use it for growing cuttings and runners and using them to plant up my other tanks.
I know its a lot hopefully you guys can anwser a few of them.
thanks nathan


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## TigerBarb12 (Jan 7, 2007)

hey, cool. My name is Nathan too.  

How many watts does your light have?


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## guppyart (Jan 22, 2005)

I have a 10g with 50watts, a 33g breeder with 2 4' aquarium and plant bulbs so I have no idea how many watts that is.
and a 30 hex that has 30 watts I am upgrading the lights on the hex soon.
nathan is an awsome name isn't


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## MyraVan (Jan 19, 2005)

Since no one else has replied... incadescent bulbs are pretty much useless for growing plants. They generate way too much heat and not enough light. Flourescent bulbs are the way to go. Something like 2 watts/gallon of flourescent lighting would be a good starting point for a planted tank. Since you have 15 gallons, 30W would be good. You can get flourescent bulbs that screw into sockets for incadescent bulbs. I don't think you can get any 30W ones, but you can get 25W, so that would be a start.

Although, to be honest, those screw-in bulbs aren't all that great. They may consume 25W, but the light is very badly distributed: the flourescent tube is all folded back on itself, so a large portion of the light hits the bulb itself; not very useful. Also, the light is all concentrated into one small area, wheras you really want it spread out over all the tank.

Your best bet is to not use those hoods with the screw-in sockets, and set youself up with some proper linear flourescent tubes.


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## guppyart (Jan 22, 2005)

thanks myravan.
I am currently working getting together the parts needed to convert a bunch of my canopies to flourescent.
thanks for the anwsers


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## girth vader (Apr 24, 2006)

MyraVan said:


> Since no one else has replied... incadescent bulbs are pretty much useless for growing plants. They generate way too much heat and not enough light. Flourescent bulbs are the way to go. Something like 2 watts/gallon of flourescent lighting would be a good starting point for a planted tank. Since you have 15 gallons, 30W would be good. You can get flourescent bulbs that screw into sockets for incadescent bulbs. I don't think you can get any 30W ones, but you can get 25W, so that would be a start.
> 
> Although, to be honest, those screw-in bulbs aren't all that great. They may consume 25W, but the light is very badly distributed: the flourescent tube is all folded back on itself, so a large portion of the light hits the bulb itself; not very useful. Also, the light is all concentrated into one small area, wheras you really want it spread out over all the tank.
> 
> Your best bet is to not use those hoods with the screw-in sockets, and set youself up with some proper linear flourescent tubes.


quite true on those points, but a good polished reflector can definitely help out the drawbacks stated. Thats ONLY if he decides not to retro fit to strip or PC.


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## MyraVan (Jan 19, 2005)

A good polished reflector can help direct the light from those screw-in flourescent bulbs, but they are even *more* effective on linear ones, since the light comes from a much smaller source.

I've recently been on a quest for achieving maximum light for minimum wattage, and those screw-in bulbs just don't cut it. Although they might work for your application, they won't be very efficient.


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