# Lighting a 10 gallon tank.



## thechibi (Jan 20, 2012)

So, I bought this Aqueon full hood and am now horrified to realize it only has a single bulb. >< I bought the Floramax plant bulb but I'm not sure that's going to cut it. This was about all my LFS had.  Is there somewhere I can purchase a nice hood/fixture and bulbs? I want a medium light tank or so. Or will the Floramax bulb do alright? I have um, a medium light plant assortment, some Christmas moss, Round Pellia Süßwassertang, and a marimo ball. I have Flourish Excel and am currently learning to build a DIY CO2 thing (Who knew my love of making bread would help my fish tank out? My yeast is like FEISTY YEAST!). Although I will admit that I don't feel very brave building a light fixture. Here's a link to what I have: http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=11248157


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## [email protected] (Jul 17, 2008)

My favorite for small tanks, is incandescent strip lights running Sylvania, 23 watt, daylight, "now smaller than ever", spiral compact bulbs. 
One on 5.5 gallon tanks, two on 10g and 15g tanks.


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## thechibi (Jan 20, 2012)

[email protected] said:


> My favorite for small tanks, is incandescent strip lights running Sylvania, 23 watt, daylight, "now smaller than ever", spiral compact bulbs.
> One on 5.5 gallon tanks, two on 10g and 15g tanks.


 Oh, neat. :O Thank you. Although I was hoping to avoid incandescent since they generate extra heat don't they? And would this Floramax bulb be okay or should I overnight something more awesome?


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## shortsboy (Feb 6, 2011)

I had a 10g with a single t8 bulb in the hood and grew hearty rotalas, anubias and subwassertang with no real problem. Mayaca did better in there than in my 30g mid-tech tank, despite having just the stock fluorescent hood on it.

If you put more light on it it'll grow more plants faster, but because the tank is so shallow the t8 bulb can do ok, especially if you make a simple reflector for the hood (look at other posts in this forum on making a simple one with aluminum foil or white paint) you get pretty good light. Good enough to make easy plants happy and lush.


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## samamorgan (Dec 31, 2011)

thechibi said:


> Oh, neat. :O Thank you. Although I was hoping to avoid incandescent since they generate extra heat don't they? And would this Floramax bulb be okay or should I overnight something more awesome?


He misled with the text a little. They aren't incandescent, theyre flourescent CFLs. I think he said incandescent because theyre standard edison socket fixtures.


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## thechibi (Jan 20, 2012)

Oh. Well, now I feel silly. What I may do is just use this T8 and vulture those nice CFL bulbs then.  Sales=Good. Edit: Are the Perfecto or All-Glass strips better for with those 23 watt daylight bulbs? I have the glass and lid part of the hood.


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## Azarakiah (Sep 22, 2011)

i bought the 10 gal starter kit thing from petco when they had it on sale for the same price as just one of their 10 gallon hoods. it came with the hood i was searching for so i said might as well, i have 2 13watt 6500k cfl bulbs in it from lowes, everything grows great, starting to see the HC grow now, and im not even using co2 or ferts on that tank...


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## thechibi (Jan 20, 2012)

Cool, thank you. Can I buy just a light strip if I have an Aqueon full hood since it has glass under where the light strip is?


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## Azarakiah (Sep 22, 2011)

myself personally ill stick with the hood that has the 2 bulb slots not the strip light one, aqueon makes both hoods for the 10 gal.


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