Can I use a reading lamp for a planted tank?

[BeefyG]

The problem with spiral wound bulbs is that you do not get the light focused where you want them to be. Even with reflectors the light will be cast into the bulb itself and therefore you will not get as much effency as with incadacent or straight flourecents. This is not to say that it is not a good bulb, just not as effecint as advertized.

Ah, now I get it. The incandecents run way too hot though and, at the moment, straight flourescents are too expensive. I will be pulling some flourescent fixtures out of one of the bathrooms in the somewhat near future so I may mod that into a hood but for now I will stick to the cfl bulbs.

[BeefyG]

Blargh.... it was the socket. The bulb base was bottoming out on the ceramic cup of the socket. A little time with the dremel fixed it... of course the wife had already exchanged them lol

[Somefishguy]

yea thats what i thought... what you can also do it stick a screwdriver(unplug first!) and lift the metal piece at the bottom of the socket... this will give you better contact

[BeefyG]

yea thats what i thought... what you can also do it stick a screwdriver(unplug first!) and lift the metal piece at the bottom of the socket... this will give you better contact

thanks. I was worried about that since it wasn't working and I snugged it up a lil bit better and it worked...

[mahoro]

try building your self a light? t5 - t8 aren't that expensive to build....

[mahoro]

hey beefyg, whats that in your avatar, its cute looking...

[Somefishguy]

looks like jack skellington

[BeefyG]

hey beefyg, whats that in your avatar, its cute looking...

I wanted a skull for my tank because I thought it would be cool. I didn't want to shell out the money for the one from walmart and that one is way too realistic for my daughter... then I read on a site that they sell coconuts with holes for cichlid breeders! So I bought me a coconut but the drill slipped when I was doing the eyes so they came out crooked and the mouth turned out more shrunken headish that I intended and then when I was done I looked at it and realized I had made jack skellington! so long story short... its a coconut lol

my wife hated it though and I had it in the tank that is supposedly for my daughter because it has all the little pretty fish in it so I made a new one with a heart... the fish actually use it too... especially the dalmation molly for some reason...

my daughter still says she likes the other one better... lol

[BeefyG]

Here are pics of the heart coconut in the tank and what my top tank looks like with the 100 w eq daylight cfs. No other lights are on, its night, and I didn't use flash.

[Mzungu]

That heart coconut is too cute. I love that your daughter still likes the first one! :)

[HepCaribou]

As long as your tanks don't get too hot, the light from the window is OK and judging from your lamp placement, the sun is probably worth more for plants than they are. :-/ Lights need to be close to the water, and aimed/focused reasonably well. Direct sun can add too much heat (and algae...), so keep an eye on it. You can always put something behind the tank to block it later. Indirect sun is safer.

Bulbs ... anything fluorescent will beat incandescent. The spectrum really doesn't matter as much as we all used to think -- I've got some (easy) plants going nuts under a pair of 14-watt "warm white" spiral compact-fluorescents. I wouldn't get a bulb that looks pink or blue, though, just simply because the tank will look dim to YOU, even if the plants don't mind. The 6500K bulbs, when you can find them, are nice for plants and make the greens really pop for our eyeballs.

For the 15-watt tube fluorescent, try out a Philips "Natural Sunlight" tube -- attractive bright light color, works decently for plants. But 15-watts over a 25 gallon tank probably won't grow plants, regardless. :(

Plants ...

• Java Fern -- with enough fish poo, it'll just grow and grow. Rubber band it to a rock or wood to keep it in place till it finally gets going.
• Java Moss -- under dim lighting, might stay stringy and dark green, but I bet your sunlight/daylight will be enough
• Anubias -- I find these trickier, amongst low-light plants
• Cryptocornes -- grab a couple of the cheapest ones at the store and try 'em ... they WILL appear to die after being planted; leave 'em alone and they'll come back from the roots in a week or 3. They don't like being disturbed.
• Najas/Guppy Grass -- I've had decent luck with this in low light. It's a fast grower, so it helps soak up fish waste (provided you throw it away by the handful when cleaning!). It can become weed-like.

If you don't mind risking some algae, experiment with leaving your lights on up to 14 hours a day. Plants can't use more than that daily (and that's a stretch), but longer is better if you have really poor lighting. One of the healthiest Java Ferns I ever had was in a 10-gallon hospital tank under an ancient 15-watt tube that ... pretty much stayed on all the time.