Lighting 5.5 gallon

[Aurie]

I was having issues with my lighting and after some jostling I ended up putting my 30" fixture on my 10 gallon (20") and it overhangs but the bulb is 24" long so that works out. (yeah it looks horrible but it works well) I took the 20" fixture (18" bulb) and stuck it on the 16" 5.5 gallon so it overhangs a little too but where does that put me in terms of lighting? it's 14 watt and it's a zoomed ultrasun bulb. I'm also wondering if anyone is using the same larger fixture? It only overhangs by 2 inches on each side. Wouldn't that put me at almost 3wpg? It's on my NPT so I'm not worried about dosing co2.

What are your takes on it?

[tekkguy]

Watts per gallon is a myth. What you need to be worried about is color temperature and PAR. The temp is right if it is daylight. Without knowing what kind of light it's hard to guess at PAR and PAR meters are insanely expensive!

[aokashi]

^ par is more important ^_^
Im using a 23w cfl over my 1 gallon cube. that's 23w/gallon right?
but par wise it's 60PAR at the substrate level. a bit over the highlight threshold.
you should be fine with the 14w for low light plants, but if its heavily planted, expect some plants to lose their lower leaves.

[Aurie]

Lol @ 23wpg

I just wanted to know where that put me as far as lighting level so I can buy appropriate plants. I am thinking of trading out my gloss in my not for marsela quadrafolia but I wanted to make sure I'd have enough light

[aokashi]

marsilea can survive without much light. glosso loves light and will mostly likely die off. I recommend floating glosso if you really want to keep some. if you want a carpet... then forget it lol!

[Aurie]

My glosso is growing well but it's going straight up. I just did my first trim of it and chopped it up into little pieces and replanted it. I'm going to pick up some 4 leaf clover this weekend.

What do you guys think about this lighting and Brazilian micro swords. The thin ones that look like grass. I'm replacing my dwarf sag with it. My dwarf sag got to as tall as the tank and I love the look. Like poofy vals, but then I realised that I was looking at 8 plants, not the 1 I originally planted and it'd be a bit to trim and rip out with soil in the tank that wasn't an option so I yanked it early.

[aokashi]

microswods will also survive. I do recommend growing enough emmersed for the area you want to cover as it doesbt grow much in lower light.