30 watts for 30gallons, enough?

[finfan]

well, as some of you know, i have an eclipse system 2 hood with twin 18" "T8 natural daylight flourescent bulbs", from what i can tell from the internet, it looks like they are 15watts each (30watts total), for my 30gal. tall (24"L*12"W*24"H), would that at least be considered medium to low light?

my plants are low light plants: crypt lucens, anubias nana, and java fern

although the tank is tall, i am thinking this wattage will be at least "low" and not too low?

for some reason it is mystery how much wattage these tubes are because it is not written on the package or the tubes or anywhere else on the stuff i got!!  but i looked up replacement bulbs and they are tagged as 15watts

i just want to make sure that i have at least "low" light for my low light plants

[armthehomeless]

Re: 30 watts for 30gallons, enough?

You'll be okay with those plants - particularly the last two.

[eklikewhoa]

Re: 30 watts for 30gallons, enough?

The reflectors in those hoods are not very good so you lose about half....so 15w in a 30g is good to keep fish....the plants will be alright but not good.

[finfan]

Re: 30 watts for 30gallons, enough?

so if i go buy some two 15watt nutra-glow or flora-glow or something like that, it still would not work because of the reflectors?

so my plants are just going to sit there and not grow? sucks

[eklikewhoa]

Re: 30 watts for 30gallons, enough?

They will probably not grow....Try to up your photo period to try and make up for it....shoot for about 10hrs and then go from there.

The different "name" bulbs are just different kelvin rating and those two will probably be better then some of the others. Another option is to look into a retrofit kit which will replace what you have with something a bit more effective.

[finfan]

Re: 30 watts for 30gallons, enough?

currently i am doing roughly 12 hours because of the low wattage

i have bunch of stuff coming up, but in a few months i will completely change the lighting, i have some ideas, i will definitely run it by you guys before i do that, too bad i have to wait until december or january - i guess that will also give me some good time to see how these lights will do

[eklikewhoa]

Re: 30 watts for 30gallons, enough?

I just bought a 24" coralife from theKarens which is 2x65w which would be awesome over that 30g! Too bad I snatched it already since it was only $30 I figured why not. I would offer it back to you but it has found a home over my 10g.

You could look for something like that and ditch you whole hood.