# Fluval Mini Power Compact Lamp - 13W



## Hoppy (Dec 24, 2005)

How much PAR you would get depends a lot on the reflector, if any, and the distance from the bulb. I don't know how anyone can come up with a good guess on PAR without a lot more information.


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## jbig (Jul 13, 2012)

The bulb would be approx. 14in from substrate. 

I'm still a bit of a noob when it comes to lighting so i'm not sure what you mean by a reflector?


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## J.Kirk (Jan 4, 2013)

I have 2 Fluval Mini compacts on my Evolve 8 gal because 1 just wasn't cutting it. Looked to dim IMO, i would say with 1 your at low and with 2 you bump up to medium-high. I am growing a crypt parva foreground well with these and the ludwigia repens in the back grows almost to the surface in 2 weeks. HTH


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## somewhatshocked (Aug 8, 2011)

You'll definitely be in the area of nice, low light.

Two fixtures almost necessitates the need for dosing and CO2.

I ran three on my Ebi but was able to find the sweet spot with light-CO2-ferts.


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## jbig (Jul 13, 2012)

Thanks for the info! 

right now i have java moss, anubias nana, jungle val, and a windelov java fernin the tank. They seem to be doing ok with the stock light. I want to put the fluval fixture on but i'm afraid this will be too much for the java moss. 

any thoughts?


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## somewhatshocked (Aug 8, 2011)

A single 13W Fluval fixture will be fine on your tank and fine for moss.


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## R.sok (Sep 24, 2012)

I used to run one of those fluval 13 watts in my 8 gallon biocube, I really like them as they're adjustable & you can mount them all over the place, but it certainly isn't enough for medium light plants, low light plants on the other hand, you'll be fine with. The beam pattern on them mostly concentrates on a small area


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## Ductapemaster (Aug 22, 2012)

I don't have any real data like PAR to back up my claims, but I put one of those over my Evolve 4 instead of the stock LED light and my plants were growing pretty slowly. I went back to the stock light and there has been an explosion of growth in the last couple weeks! Nothing else has changed, same fert routine, etc.

You might want to stick with the stock fixture, it might be better than you would think.


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## jbig (Jul 13, 2012)

thanks everyone, i'm going to give it a shot and see how the plants take. 




Ductapemaster said:


> I don't have any real data like PAR to back up my claims, but I put one of those over my Evolve 4 instead of the stock LED light and my plants were growing pretty slowly. I went back to the stock light and there has been an explosion of growth in the last couple weeks! Nothing else has changed, same fert routine, etc.
> 
> You might want to stick with the stock fixture, it might be better than you would think.


ductape, what kind of plants are you growing? i'm not dosing anything in this tank except a single root tab.


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## R.sok (Sep 24, 2012)

I still do run the fluval 13watt on my biocube, but it's also paired up with a clip on desklamp 6500k 15watt cfl


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## jbig (Jul 13, 2012)

R.sok said:


> I still do run the fluval 13watt on my biocube, but it's also paired up with a clip on desklamp 6500k 15watt cfl


R.sok, 

are you dosing anything? I dose excel and comprehensive in my other two tanks but this 8g is my first try without excel/comp. i'm curious to see how much light i could get up to without needing to dose.


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## R.sok (Sep 24, 2012)

I dose comprehensive, once every 4 days, but just barely.


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## R.sok (Sep 24, 2012)

& here is the tank 6 months ago









No special substrate, just sand & no root tabs


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## jbig (Jul 13, 2012)

R.sok said:


> & here is the tank 6 months ago
> 
> 
> 
> ...


tank looks great in both pics. any inhabitants? or is that the reason for the comp every 4 days?


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## R.sok (Sep 24, 2012)

The lower picture I had pea puffers & dosed more because i had more plants. 

But now I have around 40ish shrimp & dose a tiny bit. I don't even know if it's the right amount, I took my comprehensive bottle, poured it in a spray bottle & diluted it with water. So I do one spray every 4 days. I kind of messed around spraying a lot at first to kind of find a balance of algae & no algae. I expect the bottle to last me at least a year


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## jbig (Jul 13, 2012)

very nice. once again, thanks for the help everyone


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