Best tube for a 35l tank?

[hinch]

What would be the best tube to put on a 35l tank hood. I don't have the option of external lighting as the hood has to remain on the tank so the best I can do is make use of the existing tube fitting.

At current I have the following tube in the hood Sun-Glo 14W 15in T8 will that be enough for a tank of 50x25x35

 

[ceg4048]

Yes, it's fine. Leave it alone until you learn how to grow plants properly. Then you can ascend to the next level of Superpokemon.

Cheers,

 

[hinch]

hah unfortunately I'm never going to be able to go nuts on planted tanks unless I can stuff enough lighting etc into a hood have to keep the tanks covered to stop the cat going swimming

 

[jms1971]

What you have is loads! That's plenty of light. You don't need massive lighting. All that rubbish about small tanks needing more. Its not true. I've tried from 9 wpg to 0.7 wpg over 10 gallons, best performance so far in two years of experiments was 2 wpg, 20 W single source over 10 gallons. best crypts i ever grew were under one single 2700k 7W lo energy compact. No co2. Tried 90 watts once was good for about a week. Fish were not happy either. 6wpg was touch and go, very naughty. 4.5wpg worked ok but co2 was a pain. 3wpg great, but dont make a mistake. 2-1.5 wpg = easy. 1.5 slow but steady carpet prefers 2. 0.7wpg combined with ambient light =happy crypts. But slow ones.

 

[hinch]

good to know I've just finished cleaning the tank up its not perfect considering its age though its not come up too bad.

I've now got the lighting, filtration and substrate sorted. Now I need to work out what hardscape and planting plan I want. can't decide if I want to go the wood route or wood + stone or just stone or no hardscape and just lots of plants.

too many decisions