# Lighting on 10 gallon and dosing for low-tech tank



## mandalorianjedi (Feb 21, 2008)

For the amount of watts over that tank, I'd say you have plenty to work with there as far as growing plants. From what I've read its in the med-high range of light. You will just want to be sure that you have enough plants in there to out-compete the algae.

As far as dosing goes, I am setting up a 5.5g AGA and have some of the same questions.

Justin


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## skabooya (Apr 15, 2005)

I would say maybe 15watts fluorescent over the tank (with a plant grow bulb)
your 2.6 watts will grow plants. I have 26 watts over my 4 gal. And i currently set up a 10gal in my classroom with 2x15watt bulbs over it. Dose weekly with NPK mixture (in bottles at the lfs) use the recommended dosage. You could do fluorish excel. I am now doing 5 drops every other day in my high tech 4 gal. So in a low tech weekly would be great. Although IME you dont really need CO2 or fluorish in low tech tanks. I find that my low tech tanks do better without it.
Oh and Iron will help bring out the colour of your plants I dose that weekly as well on my low tech tanks.

Dont let it frustrate you. Low tech is a nice slow lazy (in a good way) enjoyable hobby. It should be relaxing.

Hoped i helped out a little.


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## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

I started out my 10gal low-light tank with just the standard stock 18 watt fluorescent it came with. I could never keep stem plants alive unless I floated them, but pygmy chain sword and java moss and java ferns all did great.


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## Characins (Feb 4, 2008)

I had 1wpg in my 10 gallon for awhile, and nothing lived but my corkscrew val. Now I have just over 2wpg and can grow pretty much whatever I want. Your 2.6 should be fine for most plants.


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## dekstr (Oct 23, 2007)

First question: 

Low light tanks are great. Not a lot of maintenance involved, few water changes (mostly just evaporation top-offs) and don't really need to prune much.

As for lighting, wpg doesn't apply, so a standard 18" 15w fluorescent bulb, one 13w or 15w spiral bulb will be enough.

Plants that do pretty well in this amount of light include vallisneria species, anubias species, crypt species and maybe mosses and java fern. I would also throw in certain hygrophila species because they seem to grow in almost any conditions I have put them in so far. Duckweed will grow regardless too lol (they will not stop growing for anything).

The key is keeping the tank parameters stable.
Second question:

As for using dry chemicals, it's not even that hard! It's just a matter of actually buying the chemicals and using some measuring spoons to dump the chemicals into the tank. Or mixing it in water first, then pouring the solution into the tank.

At the minimum, the 3 chemicals you need are KNO3, KH2PO4 and a trace elements mix. Some sort of GH booster is helpful as plants take up minerals, so you can replenish either with GH booster or tapwater.

Low light tanks means plants have much slower uptake rates for nutrients, so you actually don't need to supplement with dosing that often. Many low tech tank keepers don't even dose at all, they just supplement with fish food.

However, dosing a bit every so often doesn't hurt because you won't put any certain nutrients as the limiting growth factor.

Hope I helped! Looks like you're off to a great start already!

Looking forward to progress!


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## D.C._United_Caps_Fan (Mar 9, 2008)

RE Lighting on a 10G - I simply use 2, 14W each compact flourescent bulbs called "daylight". They are the curly kind, that screw into regular old light sockets. The hood came w/ the tank and its just one of those old fasioned black plastic hoods w/ the window in it for the lights, that takes standard incandescent bulbs. The curly CFL's fit in it perfectly under the reflector. 28W total on a 10G gives me just shy of 3WPG. Thats PLENTY for low and medium light plants. I have been using CLF's on tanks for years, and they have worked great. Saves me a ton of money too since I can get 4 bulbs at places like home depot for 8 or 9 bucks. Low tech, and cost effective! :thumbsup:


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## Sakmeht (Mar 5, 2008)

Thanks guys for the ideas... I think I'll stick with my 2.6 watts and see how it goes. I did pick up some Flourish Trace and some Excel and plan to use those once a week or so. I didn't see any of the iron, and unfortunately I think that's what my plants need. One of the mystery plants I picked up at first I found out is cabomba, and the new growth is very pale. I suspect an iron deficiency. I did throw in some anubias and java moss... I just let it spread out on the substrate. The anubias is tied to a rock. I did manage to score some MTS while at the new fish store I located. He threw about 15 in for free. So we'll see where this leads. I will pick up some potassium and iron at the very least and go from there. Thanks everyone!


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