Enough light for plants

[Seglespaan]

Hi,

I'm planning on buying a Juwel Rekord 800 from seapets as my first reasonably sized tank.

It comes with 2 x 18w T8 tubes and is 80x35x45 cm (110 Litre)

I'm hoping to plant it but am curious if the light will be bright enough.

I won't be using CO2, most likely seachem excel and will be using a good substrate.

Also will HC grow in this setup? if not what about Glosso? I really like the look of small carpeting plants

Thanks

[homemadepopcorn]

That isn't enough light for most plants. You might be able to grow anacharis or maybe some java moss and java fern.

HC and glosso both do better with high ferts, high CO2 and very high light. Seeing as your tank is 18" tall, you would probably need upwards of 60-70w of T5 lighting (T5HO) to achieve enough light at the substrate to grow those thick carpets. Also, a good substrate couldnt hurt.

[Seglespaan]

Can you buy higher output T8 tubes?

Any time I search I can only find T5, and the Rekord doesn't come with T5, and unfortunately once you add substrate etc the Rio is slightly out my price range

:(

[KevinVA]

You can buy T8 HO bulbs, but you'll need a T8 HO fixture, which it sounds like you don't. For your size tank, you'd probably be best served with purchasing a glass top and dual bulb T5 HO light fixture.

[Seglespaan]

Ok thanks for this,

say I went for the Rio 125 instead, It's got two T5 28W lights, but is also 5cm higher, am I getting closer to being able to grow some better plants or is this still way off the mark?

http://www.seapets.co.uk/products/aquarium-supplies/aquariums/juwel/juwel-rio-aquariums/juwel-rio-125-aquarium-and-cabinet-dark-wood.html

Plus is the filter in this setup any good, not massively bother by the appearance but I'd been using aqadvisor.com and it would sugest that the compact filters aren't too hot.

[KevinVA]

Well, you're getting closer. You could probably grow some low-light plants with that setup, but you'd need to step up to T5 HO if you wanted anything with mid-high light requirements.

The Juwel filter has an interesting design, but I'm unfamiliar with them.

It looks like it has your media bases covered and you could probably replace the carbon with more biomedia if need be, but from what I'm reading it doesn't cycle enough water. It says it only filters 600L (~158gal) per hour. It's a 125L (30gal) tank, so you'd want something that could handle twice the load. So, you'd want something rated for a 250L (60gal) tank that could handle around 950-1100+L (250-300gal) per hour.

The general rule of thumb is to double up on filtration. So, if you had a 10gal tank, you'd want a filter rated for a 20gal tank; 30gal tank gets a 60gal filter, etc. Many people get two filters, rather than one higher rated filter, but you can certainly work with one.

[bethyMT]

YOu are def. getting closer. Those are T5s, which aren't too bad. Better than Ts.

As far as awesome plants go, may I recommend cryptocorene? They are wonderful low light plants...if I haven't killed them yet, nobody will. They may be a good place for you to start, along with your java fern and other low light plants.

You could try a couple of medium light plants in that setup and see how it goes.

[Seglespaan]

Aaaarrrrggggghhhhhhhhhhhhh!

So the lights are better but the filters mince. And teh lights still aren't what I'm aiming for. Not cool. My dreams of a beautiful Iwagumi aquascape with a few schools of minnows / tetras is fading fast.

Ambitious I know for a first planted tank, but I wanted to give it a shot none the less.

I think I already know the answer to this, but is there an aquarium of roughly this size out there with decent lights and filter for about £250-300, I'm thinking not!

I've been on gumtree for my local (+50-100 miles) area but to no avail.

:(

[KevinVA]

Hopefully someone from the UK can jump in here and help you out. I'm not exactly sure what's available over there, but if you were here, I'd be able to get you something appropriate for the same amount or less money. =/

Top Fin (or similar) 29gal Glass Aquarium = $115 (that's a kit price - I'm sure an empty tank would be about $80-90)
Aquaclear 70 = $35
Thermometer = $5
Heater = $20-30
30" Versatop (glass top) = $22
Odyssea 24" (expandable) Dual-Lamp T5 HO light fixture = $44

You could get a pretty nice stand for $100 or less.

This is all retail (USD). Exchange rate is 1USD:1.6GBP.

Again, not sure what's available to you, but if you look around, you might be able to find some of this on Amazon UK or eBay.

Ok, added up it's a little more than you were expecting - about $100 more... but you could get a lot of this used or something, if need be.

[Seglespaan]

Thanks Kevin,

Oh to be able to shop in the states. Although the filter is available here for about £35, a heater maybe about £15

The Odyssea light fitting looks perfect but a quick google about and it doesn't seem to be available here. But that's an awesome price. Similar T5 HO fittings over here are upwards of £80

Versatop lids also don't seem to be available here.

And I'm actually struggling to find a bare bones tank, Thegreenmachine and aquaessentials have em but only for crazy money.

Hopefully someone on here will know about a supplier I've yet to find online.

Unless of course you want to buy all of it and post it over :)

[KevinVA]

Haha, I'm sure the shipping would bite you pretty horribly.