New to Plants

[Kageshi17]

120 Volts
20 Watt
60 HZ

This is the strength of my new aquarium hood flourescent light setup I just bought for my 29g aquarium. Soon, my tank will be cleaned out of all life and cycled for 3-4 weeks with live plants. I was wondering what kinds of live plants would be able to survive under this lighting and what fertilizer would be most recomended to use. I've heard good and bad things about liquid fert and good and bad things about dry fert.

So, the types of plants I would like to have grow in my tank include:

Java Fern
Java Moss
Some kind of grass (any ideas??)
Crytocoryne Pontederiifolia
Vallisneria Spiralis

I found and will be buying all of these plants from: http://stores.ebay.com/Aquadise-Store

So yeah, I was thinking of putting an inch of sand on the bottom of my aquarium and then an inch of find round gravel over the top.

What do you think?

[mousey]

To start with you cannot cycle a tank with plants!
You must have something living in there that produces ammonia. If you are planning to have a low light tank then 1.5 -2.0 watts per gallon is what you should have. java fern and moss will grow at that level. I have 2.5 - 3.0 watts pg on my tanks, no co2 and I grow java fewn and moss, jungle vals, anubias and sagittaria. I leave my lights on for 4 hours in the morning and 1 1/2 hours in the evening.There is natural light in the room but no sunlight directly on any tank. I use liquid ferts in 4 tanks. In a nother tank I use liquid plus I place a Jobes spike under some of the plants to see what difference it makes. Not much I have found. My tanks are slightly overstocked with very poopy fish except for the one with the Jobe's spikes.That tank has tetras and Sae's.
Something in that tank eats my vals! I use plain pea size colored gravel.
If you want to get up your watts you could convert your canopy (if you are electrically smart)
I had hubby change all my tops from long flurescent bulbs to household spiral flurescent bulbs. initially a bit expensive buying the bulb holders but much cheaper for bulbs!!

[JustOneMore20]

You have pretty low light and if you aren't willing to upgrade, then your choices for plants are pretty limited. The ones you listed, except the Vals should work. IME Vals need more light than you have. Also, I don't believe any grassy plants will grow in that light. You could try Dwarf Sagittaria, but I don't think it will be too happy. You can add Anubias to your list, if you like them. And other Cryptocorynes. Java fern, moss, and anubias will need to be tied to rocks or wood. You aren't going to have alot of plants with the ones you are looking at, to fill up the tank. You'll have to upgrade your lighting to have more plant options.

For that low of light, the only fert you'll really need IMO is something like Flourish which is a comprehensive fertilizer. I wouldn't bother with dry ferts. You could also use Flourish Excel. With low light, only use the fert once a week or so. The plants won't grow fast, so there really isn't a need to dose more than that.

So yeah, I was thinking of putting an inch of sand on the bottom of my aquarium and then an inch of find round gravel over the top.

The sand and gravel will eventually mix, so I'd choose one or the other.

[girth vader]

20 watts of what kind of lighting? 1.45w of flo is a lot different then 1.45 watts of pc or T5. and does your light have polished reflectors? Once we know that we can take it from there

[Kageshi17]

No polished reflectors...I was just reading what was on the box! Hhaha, I cant really find any other info in that. And, yes, I can upgrade my light to whatever you all suggest, I just need to know if I need a new hood in order to do so or can I just buy a more powerful bulb? I definately CANNOT afford another hood, this one was $51.00. So yeah, keep the ideas coming!

[girth vader]

plants are fine to cycle with and actually recommended as they will provide bacteria for the NH3/4 to convert to nitrate. Just research the plants you can keep with the lighting you have.

[TigerBarb12]

my ten gallon with some plants has 40 watts, so im not sure, but with half of what i have, on a tank almost triple the size, i would say very few plants could thrive.

[Kageshi17]

Ok, my question was: Can I place a higher wattage bulb in my hood? Thats all I need to know and then I can plant it better. So can you please perscribe an amount of wattage that would be good for a medium planted 29g? Thats all I need to know, not discouraging talk on how its not gonna work out -_-

[MyraVan]

If you put a 55W PowerCompact in there, you would have a fairly low-light planted tank (1.9 Watts/gallon), which would allow you to grow:

crypocorynes (or however you spell it)
hygro
dwarf sag
Nymphea stellata bulbs
moss balls
Java fern
Java moss
Echinodorus ozelet

At least those are the things that do well/have done well in my 1.5 watts/gallon 20g tank. They don't grow very fast, mind, but they do grow and over time they get to looking really nice.

[JustOneMore20]

Ok, my question was: Can I place a higher wattage bulb in my hood?

No you can't. Your hood is only for 20 watt fluorescent bulbs. Fluorescent bulb wattages correlate with their lengths, so a higher wattage bulb would be too long for your hood.

For a medium planted tank, I'd shoot for around 55 or 65 watts. If you bought a single 1x65 watt power compact fixture, this would be perfect.

If you put a 55W PowerCompact in there,

You can't just put a power compact bulb in a fluorescent hood...it won't fit.

You can buy a retrofit kit which involves taking out the fluorescent parts of the hood and installing a new ballast and parts for a single power compact bulb, but you'd need to know what you were doing. Also, the retrofit kits can cost almost as much as buying a new fixture.

If you are interested in the retrofit kit, check out http://www.ahsupply.com. I've heard alot of good things about their kits.

[girth vader]

I'm going to assume it's regular flo lighting, probably T8. Grow crypts, like wendtii. you can get them in green, bronze and brown. Vals will grow in any light, and the corkscrew Val looks nice. Anubias nana looks nice .Echinodorus Ozelot will grow in low light too. Java fern/moss will grow too, but I'm not a fan of either. So there you have foreground- crypts and anubias, and for mid and rear Vals and Echinodorus. Here are some links to look at the plants.

http://www.plantedtank.net/plants/Echinodorus/2/

http://www.plantedtank.net/plants/Anubias-Lagenandra/7/

http://www.plantedtank.net/plants/Cryptocorynes/4/

[MyraVan]

Originally Posted by JustOneMore20

You can't just put a power compact bulb in a fluorescent hood...it won't fit.

The only hoods I've used are simple aluminum shells: whatever light you want, you mount it yourself, and put the starter somewhere nearby. What I meant was, Kageshi17 should remove the bulb he has, and the mounts and starter, and buy a 55W PC bulb, with mount and starter, and install that.

If the hood comes with mount and starter built into it, then I can see that this is not an option! Unless there's enough spare space in there to simply ignore what's been installed and put the extra stuff in.

[JustOneMore20]

Originally Posted by MyraVan

The only hoods I've used are simple aluminum shells: whatever light you want, you mount it yourself, and put the starter somewhere nearby. What I meant was, Kageshi17 should remove the bulb he has, and the mounts and starter, and buy a 55W PC bulb, with mount and starter, and install that.

If the hood comes with mount and starter built into it, then I can see that this is not an option! Unless there's enough spare space in there to simply ignore what's been installed and put the extra stuff in.

I can understand that. I just wanted to point out that you can't just buy a PC bulb for a reg. fluoro hood. Some people think you can, and I just didn't want her get confused.

The AHSupply link that I put in my other post is to a place that sells the starters, wiring, reflectors, and PC bulb mounts you need to have PC lighting. Basically the lighting "guts" you need for the hood. Alot of people retrofit that into reg. fluoro hoods (after taking out the fluorescent "guts" of course) .