Small tanks are much less forgiving. Anything that changes, changes a lot
faster. Evaporation alone can be PITA with a small tank.
Like I said, I've always heard this, but have never found it true in
practice. I maintain my small tanks on the same schedule as my old large
tanks.
Not me. I live up north, and I have central heating. Very dry in winter. The
5 gallon tank suffered so much evaporation in the winter that I had to remember
to top off the tank every other day or so, or the water level would drop so low
the filter would stop running.
Well sure, and I told him that was a bad idea. But I see just as many
people trying to put an oscar or a goldfish in a 20 gallon too. It's all
the same problem if the the tank is 55 gallons or 5- education.
But obviously, the larger the tank, the more room for error. Which was my
point.
I've never heard that said before, and I can't even fathom the logic in
that. If I have a 20 gallon tank that has 3 wpg, I should not need more
light in a 5 gallon tank to grow the same plants. especially since it's
likely the tank is deeper in the larger tank. Can you explain this one
more to me?
See this article:
http://www.thekrib.com/Plants/Tech/Lighting/
Basically, it's a lighting survey that shows that the watt per gallon rule
breaks down for very large tanks (over 100 gallons) and very small tanks (under
5 gallons).
As for the reason...I don't know for sure, but I suspect it's due to the nature
of flourescent lights, and a certain obvious flaw in the wpg rule.
The longer a flourescent bulb is, the more efficient it is. So you get more
light per watt from a 4' bulb than from a shorter one.
And the wpg rule ignores the fact that height is more important than the other
dimensions. And height really doesn't change much as a tank gets larger.
Length is the dimension that changes the most. But the wpg rule treats all
dimensions as equal. Obviously, a tank that was 2'x2x6' tall would need more
light than one that's 6'x2'x2'. But the wpg rule would say they're the same
volume, and so need the same amount of light.
Just curious, what kind of setup did you have?
I had it set up in various ways. When I had a Betta in it, there was no
filtration. I tried it with a sponge filter for shrimp, and with a UGF for
various small critters. I even had it set up as a brackish tank for a pair of
baby puffers for awhile.
I never had that problem either. Hopefully if your injecting co2 you
know about the KH and ph formula. The same rules apply, and hopefully
you are monitoring and going slow at first
With DIY CO2, it's hard to overdose the tank if you have a 20 gallon. You can
OD and kill all the fish with DIY CO2 on a 2 gallon tank.
True enough, but he asked if it was possible.
And I didn't say it wasn't possible. I just tried to encourage him to go with
the larger tank.
I also don't see a ten
gallon tank absorbing very many beginners mistakes.
Larger would be better, but a 10 gallon is better than 2-1/2 gallons.
Following the beginner's rule of an inch of fish per gallon, he'd have to limit
himself to 2 fish. Very difficult for a beginner. With a ten gallon, he could
get himself ten small fish, and even if he went overboard, and got a few extra,
or some larger fish, he'd probably be okay.
Leigh
http://www.fortunecity.com/lavender/halloween/881/