"Greg G." wrote in message
...
Larry Blanchard said:
On Fri, 25 Nov 2005 21:18:13 -0500, Greg G. wrote:
It's a common micro sword - Echinodorus tennellus, The true hair grasses
demand too much light for my meager budget.
Do you harvest handfuls of the stuff every few months? I do :-).
I have a 32 gallon trash can at this very moment that is half full of
it and other plants. I was selling the pulls on eBay for a while,
just to get rid of it, but since I'm not selling Tektronix scopes at
this time, it was too much trouble. Want some?
Damn, You guys giving away plants are always in the US. Phyto certificates
and all that.
And I'm glad to hear it doesn't need a lot of light. Maybe I'll try some
in a 20 with just a single 15 watt fluorescent.
I've got a 20 long that's very old (cost me $2 at a garage sale) and none
of the commercial hoods/tops fit it. I'm going to build a top
(woodworking reference) using four waterproof incandescent sockets and put
the screw-in fluroescents in it. 60 watts for 20 gallons = lots of red
plants :-).
You might want to think about the screw-ins. You are free to do as
you please, of course, but they are not rated for enclosed operation.
The cheap-ass resistor ballasts get mighty warm in an enclosed space,
and their light output it not optimal for this application. That
twisted, contorted bulb is not very aquarium friendly. Remember that
light striking the water's surface must do so within a certain range,
or it bounces off. Also, I've found it difficult to find bulbs with
the right color temperature - they range from 2700k to 3200k. Most
are warm white, some are cool white, but none are tri-spectrum and
I've never seen a 5000k screw-in. They heat the aquarium
substantially without forced or convection ventilation..
I don't remember off-hand what the length of a 20L is, but common
F20T12s should fit, as I recall. (24") BigAls has a selection of T-8
bulbs in unusual lengths. They are German made and sold by ZooMed.
The only place I could get 5500k 30" T-8 bulbs to fit my 29g.
I started with 4 bulbs and it was WAAAYYY too bright, I subsequently
re-engineered for two tubes and everything is now happy. Even the
chain swords became dwarfed and flattened - hated the excessive light.
The fish weren't too fond of it either. Exceeding 10,000 lumens over
a 29g made them rather jumpy...
I just bought a 72W fixture (2x36) for my 10 gallon, as the 2x13 wasn't
doing it. I really wanted something around 50W, but there weren't any good
options. Besides, I already had the 36W bulbs from a previous upgrade. I
was only planning on running the second bulb for a few hours. But your
experience has me thinking this will be too much for the Otos, even on a
part time basis.
I do build my own hoods, however, and bend my own reflectors.
They are computer designed by me for aquarium use - 'cause the stuff
that is sold for the aquarium market is such crap.
If you are interested, here are a couple of links to my reflector
designs for T-8s and T-12s - complete with photon videos. g
http://www.thevideodoc.com/Images/T-8DualReflector.jpg
http://www.thevideodoc.com/Media/T-8DualReflector.mpg
http://www.thevideodoc.com/Images/T-12Reflector.jpg
http://www.thevideodoc.com/Media/T-12Reflector.mpg
FWIW,
Greg G.