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help on wattage for 10 litre tank?

bumcrumb

Member
Joined
11 Nov 2009
Messages
278
Location
acocks green, birmingham, uk
hi all, hope you had a great Christmas!!
had a few pounds spare after Christmas and now wanting, after getting all my ferts and filters sorted,to get my lights upgraded.
i have a small 10 litre tank which at the moment i have some dwarf hair grass growing.
i have a 8w arcadia original tropical light on at the min but want to get the best possible lighting for this size tank without causing problems.
I'm using easycarbo (started Christmas day) 0.25ml and a weekly dose of profito.
would a 14w tropical original light and a 14w arcadia freshwater light used together be OK?
what would you recommend? i cant fit a arc pod or clip on light to the tank, was looking at the starter units with a max of 18" tube size as the length is limited.
any help is welcomed.

thanks all and have a great new year!!
:)
 
anyone??? :(

I'm off to Shirley aquatics tomorrow so ill have a look at what they have on offer lol.
but please, if there is any advice on wattage for a 2 gallon tank.
all I'm planning on growing is hc and dwarf hair grass so i need a guideline on what wattage to start from to grow hc right.
i purchased the £8.99 co2 kit from aqua essentials last night to give the plants a good start so just the lights now.
thanks all

Chris :thumbup:
 
Hi Chris

Having 8w on a 2 gallon tank means you have 4 watts per gallon, which, although the watts per gallon rule dosen't really apply to smaller tanks, is still plenty to grow HC and hairgrass. I would say that 28 watts would almost certainly cause algae problems. THe most important thing is co2 with good flow and nutrients. If your dwarf hairgrass is already growing without any algae problems I would say the system you have is in balance, and therefore adding more light would increase the demand for co2 and nutrients, which would then throw the system out of balance and cause algae. If the hairgrass is not growing as much as you'd like, you could try increasing the amount of easycarbo - I've used double the recommended amount in my tank with no problems for my livestock, but be aware that it is harmful to livestock in larger amounts, so it is not recommended to overdose. Also, are you only dosing profito once a week? This is a trace fertiliser which does not contain macro's, so it might be useful to look on the guide on EI dosing.

Hope this helps!
 
hi
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!
thanks for the advice, ill wait a few more weeks and see if there is any new runner shoots about if not ill do some more investigating!
about the profito, it says to dose every week after a water change? should i be dosing it more than this then? Ive had a look at the fertz pages and on google and the whole thing boggles me, i just cant understand it all.
i thought all i needed was profito once a week and the easycarbo everyday?
just one more problem i have which the lighting question also got me thinking about, i brought some seiryu stone from aqua essentials about 2 months ago (when i first started my cycle)
and i have noticed in the last week or so (since using the profito and easycarbo) that on the rock is small 'rust' looking spots of brown which are appearing and spreading very quickly over the rock in a few days.
i removed the rock on Tuesday, cleaned it with a brush then place back in the aquarium and now today i can see it coming back again, is it brown algae? i have had my tank up and running for well over 2 months now with no problems?
cheers again

chris :(
 
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