Upgrading my lighting?

[Doughnuts]

Hi all
This is going to be my 1st post so please be gentle.

I have recently convinced the wife to allow me to purchase a new tank. it must be 10 years since I last kept plants and things have changed a bit. Anyway I ended up buying an Aquastart 340 as it was not allowed to be big and had to have a secure lid so my 4 year does not play submarines with his lego. The problem I have is that I am sure I will soon be replacing the integrated lighting which is an 11watt CF tube over a 40 litre tank. The ballast is built into the hood and I understand the starter is part of the tube. Anybody have any idea how easy it would be to upgrade this to a higher wattage whilst keeping everything integrated.
I will be dosing pressurised CO2 from a dennerle system and following an EI dosing routine hence the feeling that 11watt is not sufficient.

Thanks

 

[ceg4048]

Hello,
Welcome to the forum!

EI and CO2 application really have nothing to do with how much light you have. In general, nutrients/CO2 are responsible for growth, while the light intensity is responsible for the rate of growth.

It's important to understand this critical point, otherwise you can get into an awful lot of trouble. 11W CF is plenty of light for a 10 gallon tank. It's how you apply and distribute CO2 that will determine success.

You should learn to grow plants with the already excellent lighting that comes with the tank. Upgrading the light usually results in upgrading the level of difficulty of your problems.

Cheers,