Lighting Question

[9supratt4]

So I just bought a 28 Gallon Bow Front tank. I know that I cannot yet put live plants in it because it hasn't cycled yet, but I am trying to plan my future strategies with the tank. I would like to use live plants, but i'm not sure if the light that came with the tank is powerful enough live plants.

The hood on the tank is 120VAC, 60HZ, 17W. The bulb in the hood is a 16 W bulb that came with it. What do I need to do to make sure that the plants have enought light? Can I just change the bulb to some of those other bulbs I have seen like Coral Life Nutri Grow bulbs? Or do I have to purchase a new hood?

Please advise.

[Reefneck]

You can get a Gro light bulb and do fine with some plants. Others may require more like T5 or PC fixture.

If you know the type of plants you want to keep we can help a lot more.

[9supratt4]

I am little new to live plants so I'm not quite sure what plants I am looking at. Probably looking for plants that are easy to take care of and don't need much light. I have no problem replacing the bulb that I have with a better one, but I really didn't want to buy a new hood. So any suggestions would be great.

[Reefneck]

I'll bump this up for you as we have some really smart plant people on here that will be glad to help. Freshwater Plants is not my best field. Hopefully one of them will chime in soon and guide you to what will work best for you.

[poopadadoop]

i got a frill plant from petsmart the a year ago , and I have it in my 10 gallon tank with my goldfish. its been fine. i assume that whatever tank ur fish are in would be fine.

[mousey]

who told you you can't put live plants in a tank that is cycling??
Plants will soak up the ammonia if they are fast growers like hornwort.The ammonia will not hurt the plants. I have just fishless cycled with ammonia and my plants are fine.
People who are really into planted tanks say you can add the fish sooner with lots of plant matter in the tank.
Check out the www.plantedtank.net website for more info.

[Damon]

Correct Mousey. If the tank is properly stocked, adding fish will cause them no harm. The plants will use up any ammonia and nitrite the bacteria cant. a 17 watt N.O. bulb over a 28 gallon is not a lot of light. A 55 watt pc retrofit would work nicely. Options are limited with a bowfront style tank.

[9supratt4]

So if you look at my other thread:

http://www.fishforums.com/forum/gene...d-i-house.html

You will see that I no longer have a 28G, but a 46G tank. This tank has a much stronger hood I believe about 40 watts. I will have to check that tomorrow, but if I am correct if it is in fact about 40 watts I should be able to replace the bulb to a brighter bulb and have no problems with most tanks....correct?

Thanks!!

[Damon]

Upgrading lighting isn't as easy as that. Changing from a t12 40 watt bulb (40 watts of N.O.) to anything stronger will require a new ballast (most of the time), new bulb and reflector, and endcaps. Not expensive but not 20 dollars either. Check out http://www.ahsupply.com to see what I'm talking about.