# A Question about lighting



## Nameless (Jan 8, 2012)

I'd really like to do something nice for my sister Heather. I feel like she had become less and less in love with the idea of owning a fish because she (nor I) knew how much owning one actually costed. She has the betta (the sick one) that she bought on a whim near christmas of last year. She keeps saying things like 'a two dollar fish costs more than a 100'. I'm afraid that she will give up on owning her fish entirely and just hand her over to me. While I wouldn't mind owning a second fish, this is my sister's very first and only pet and she really does like her betta. Sometimes after cleaning I'll tell her to come in and feed her fish and she'll get this big smile and watch her swim around the tank. 

Anyway, she said once that she always liked the idea of a planted natural like tank (totally shocked me) so I'd like to plant it for her. She got a bubble toy that she can't turn on in there because the bubbles really mess with her betta so I have decided to turn it into a cool little thing to 'plant' some java ferns into the long slot where the bubble wandy thing went.

Hm, sorry. My question is, will the light that came with the kit be good enough for the plants? I plan on choosing only the easier to grow ones so that she doesn't have to buy/build or deal with a CO2 system or anything. I know java ferns grow quite well and are really easy to keep alive, but I wanted to make sure about the lighting

Oh, and if you guys know of any other easy to grow plants, feel free to share them. 

The lights are...Florescent and 15 watts a piece. One of them is broken so I should replace them both (which I am hoping might cost less than 10 dollars? I can't even afford gas right now...) soon. If I should get a different kind, though, I'd like to know now =)


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## BV77 (Jan 22, 2005)

You can get screw in compact flourescents but make sure they are full spectrum and between 5000k and 6700k. Java ferns are a low light plant and should do very well.


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## Nameless (Jan 8, 2012)

Full spectrum?

I looked them up, and I am not sure the would fit. they looked like the would be too big to fit into the cone shaped protector thingies.

*edit Scratch that, I found some that fit! But not in 15 watts?*


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## BettaGuy (May 6, 2012)

That's ok, java fern doesn't need a lot of light to grow. You can also try anubias, hornwort, and some other low light ferns. As long as you stick to low light plants there shouldn't be a problem.


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

Post a pic of what you have to a photo site like photobucket and link to it. 15W bulb can be screw in compact fluorescent (they have a normal like bulb screw socket), they can be long tubes with 2 pins (T5, T8, T12) measure the diameter of the bulb, or they can have a couple of other weird connectors. In most cases you can find a replacement at a hardware/home improvement store. A special order of LFS "aquarium" light will often do a better job of providing the right light for plants, but they will often cost double or triple a "daylight" bulb which is often enough for low-light plants.


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