any soil/potting mix tanks owners out there??

[twolovers101]

I have a 13W (I think, either that or 10W) 6500K CFL blub in the hood :) (got the blub from walmart)

[Kwomais]

I just picked up a "Daylight" 9 watt CFL from home depot ("Daylight" = 6500K & the 9 is "=" 40watts according to the box... which is a lot, but I don't mind algae lol) cause it was cheap & fit in my hood.

[itsuki]

oh i forgot to mention but mine was 10watt but honestly its seems dull, maybe its the 50% bluelight doing that, it makes the water look abit.....idk not cloudy but not as clear....does that make any sense??

[twolovers101]

Originally Posted by itsuki

oh i forgot to mention but mine was 10watt but honestly its seems dull, maybe its the 50% bluelight doing that, it makes the water look abit.....idk not cloudy but not as clear....does that make any sense??

Yeah, some lights can affect the way your water looks

@ Kwomais
Lol I had an algae bloom over break ( I don't mind much tho because it looks kinda like a mini pond from the top with my lily plants xD ) I'm getting a few amanos in a couple weeks to help keep the growth down though ^^;

[itsuki]

take a look....resolution is not the best but still anything to do to improve brightness??

[twolovers101]

It looks pretty good to me :) actually, what may be affecting the clarity of light could be the thickness of the acrylic lid you're using, but I'm no physicist... light waves and all that jazz xD

[itsuki]

Originally Posted by twolovers101

It looks pretty good to me :) actually, what may be affecting the clarity of light could be the thickness of the acrylic lid you're using, but I'm no physicist... light waves and all that jazz xD

....that might be true.......maybe my crafty/cheap/cool looking idea mightve backfired on me :( ........... i was thinking of pulling out big bucks for a real lid and a nice set of lights for my 10g soon........

[twolovers101]

it'd be a good use of money to invest in good lighting, it's what keeps the plants going really. I'd say order of importance is kinda like...

50% lighting
10% substrate
35% plants
5% livestock

That's my thought on it at least, I could be 100% wrong, lol, I haven't been at this too long, I just learn and absorb information quickly

[itsuki]

will the little bits of potting soil that float up eventually waterlog and fall down to the bottom of the tank or will i just need to scoop it up??

[Kytkattin]

Kind of an old pic at this point. It is grown in quite a bit since this. Mostly the frogbit but everything is growing a bit too. I actually made the light hood myself out of a vinyl gutter. It is 10 gallons with two 13 watt CFL bulbs at 6500K.