Aquarium lighting - 30 litre tank

Hi Guys

I have officially fallen victim to MTS, and have started a planted tank. I was wondering on what lighting you guys would recommend. I am very new to all of this.

I'm currently using a boyu white- T8 -10watt. is this correct?? also any ideas on what are good plants to use that i can get from my LFS.

Thanks

Spence

 

Its like reading the story of my life haha! I did the exact same thing and now my 3 foot tank is planted and soon to be up and running 1.8m tank will be too. I also have a 30l running a T8 10w boyu(gives off a pink colour, no idea what the kelvin rating is) and a 8w T5 bulb you would use for normal under counter lighting. For some reason my 3 foot tank plants are doing way better then my 30L so im very keen to see what the more experienced guys have to say on this. My plants dont seem to be growing and "stretching" for the light at all. Welcome to the planted tank! Be warned tho, you are going to become addicted and will never want a fake plant again!

 

Hi I have had a lot of succes with a jebo 8w t5 light on a 15w ballast using a reflector(piece of trunking sawwed in half and lined with tinfoil). I got about 1 to 2 cm of growth a day with my fast growing plants(bacoba,vallis and an amozon sword plant).I used a home made co2 reactor and some flourish comprehensive supplimentm So my advice would be to go with a small t5,just watch out cos it seems to run quite hot heating up the tank considerably

 

On a little tank like yours a CFL bulb will work. Get 20w daylight (6500k) cfl at PnP or Makro, etc and use a normal house fitting.

 

cfl would be the best, 20w

 

Thanks guys much appreciated!!!! think that reflector idea is quite cool will definitely have a look around!!

 

CFL would be very good. With a spectrum of around 6500K you can't go wrong.