# New planted aquarium inquiry.



## Drift Woody (Aug 21, 2013)

Fellow aquascapers,

I have a couple of curious questions about setting up my aquarium for a plant-in cycle. 

My setup is in a 26 gallon bowed aquarium.

With a 26 bowed tank will I need 1 or 2 9liter bags of aquasoil amazonia? I would like to use pure aquasoil, but would also really like to save some money and buy just one bag of it, because I still need to update my lighting. Is there any way I could buffer the aquasoil with gravel or something else without hurting the plant growth? Maybe I could have a hill of gravel or somesuch?

My other question is about lighting. My hood only has one 18" T8, 15 watt bulb. I realize that is not enough, especially since my tank is 21" tall. Any tips on an effective, but budget conscious low light setup?

Thanks in advance!


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## pineappleswordies (Apr 13, 2013)

I have a layer of flourite in my tank covered in a layer of sand. Many people do this because they prefer the look of one material but need the nutrients for plants. I'm sure you could mix them all together as well to create a bigger volume of material.


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## coralbandit (Jul 29, 2012)

If your tank is 24" then these are reasonable low medium power lights;
Amazon.com: Finnex FugeRay Aquarium LED Light Plus Moonlights, 24-Inch: Pet Supplies
As for the soil,many use one substrate on bottom and cap it with pool filter sand,or sand from tractor supply(cheap!).Gravel is ok also to cap with and many grow plants in regular sand or gravel.You can add ferts to compensate for sand or gravel.


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## pineappleswordies (Apr 13, 2013)

This is weird because I literally just bought that light yesterday for my 20L, but yeah what he said.


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## Drift Woody (Aug 21, 2013)

Thanks guys. And that looks like a very nice light Coral. Expensive, but I imagine it's worth it.


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## Raymond S. (Jan 11, 2013)

Without spending a lot, you can up-grade the light bulb. They look the same but degrade internally after a few months and so only
give the plants the light they need for 9 months. These bulbs I have found to do well on my plants and the last one may seem as
though it should be but has less visible light and for a 21" tank I put it last due to low light for that tank(visible).
Aqueon Full Spectrum (Petsmart) about $12
Zoo Med Ultra Sun (Petco) $18
GE Daylight 6500K (at Loew's) $9
Zoo Med Flora Sun (Petco) $18
All in T8...but... E-bay does sell a 20" T5 single bulb fixture for $20(plus shipping) but I don't know if it has a ballast/w it and has no reflector so you would need to be a DIY person to make it work. Better for the plants though.
Basic rule...low tech...low cost/high tech...high cost.
But...you can find plants by light requirement on here as well as other requirements for plants and fish.
Tropical freshwater aquarium fish: Find plants


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## Drift Woody (Aug 21, 2013)

Raymond S. said:


> Without spending a lot, you can up-grade the light bulb. They look the same but degrade internally after a few months and so only
> give the plants the light they need for 9 months. These bulbs I have found to do well on my plants and the last one may seem as
> though it should be but has less visible light and for a 21" tank I put it last due to low light for that tank(visible).
> Aqueon Full Spectrum (Petsmart) about $12
> ...


This is good! Thank you! I could use these lights and then eventually upgrade, which would be nice.

Now, do you recommend I use one of these lights along with my current T8 or on its own? And will I have to buy a whole new hood to accommodate it? My current light is housed in the hood, which only has a spot for one bulb 18" in length.


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## Raymond S. (Jan 11, 2013)

Drift Woody said:


> This is good! Thank you! I could use these lights and then eventually upgrade, which would be nice.
> 
> Now, do you recommend I use one of these lights along with my current T8 or on its own? And will I have to buy a whole new hood to accommodate it? My current light is housed in the hood, which only has a spot for one bulb 18" in length.


Any of those bulbs in T8 will work in your fixture as long as you get the same length. Unfortunately you can't use 2 with
the fixture you have and I don't know of a 2 bulb fixture that fits a bow front tank except for what you already have.
Later you could get 2 strip light fixtures I think, but they cost about $30 to $35 each. I have ten gallon tanks and I just
used under-the-counter 18" light strips(2 of them) from Walmart for my tanks but I did have a plain piece of glass cut
to fit my tanks that the fixture sat on top of. Now I still have those on one of my tanks but the other has a T5 fixture
which cost $50 with the shipping from e-bay. It's a hobby and it cost...a lot if you let it. Before I got the glass cut for
the ten gallon tank I just had 2 sticks at the top from front to back which supported the lights. I got everything
gradually piece by piece. If you just replace the bulb you have with one of those(bring your bulb with you to get
a match) and only get plants that list LOW light on that list I gave you, it will work fine.
Plants grow slowly anyway in a tank and only one bulb will keep down on algae.


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