I have two questions for you. I have a 25w fluorescent bulb lighting my
10Gal aquarium. it is only 12inches long, however it is a not very nice
bluey white colour. I would like to get one of the arcadia tropical bulbs,
or some sort of beauty bulb, as the appearance is nicer but I have only seen
them in an 8watt. At the moment I have about 2.5 watts per gallon if I move
over to one of the arcadia bulbs I will only get about 1 watt per gallon.

I am growing Vallis, hygrophilia (difformis I think), a bit of eloda and
some borneo swords. I would like to get some dwarf hairgrass as well. would
I have enough light for these plants on an eight watt tube?

If not is it possible to get a tube, the same length (12") but with more
than 8watts, that is a quite nice colour?

My second question is, how the hell do you get stem plants like hygrphilia
and eloda to stay in the gravel. I can get two sorts from my LFS, bunched.
where the bottom half inch or so is wrapped in a spongy material and held
closed by the lead weights. Or as separate strands altogether. which ever I
purchase I tend to separate the stems and plant each stem individually, this
usually results in quite a few coming up out of the substrate. I think I
will leave them bunched together next time and just remove the lead and
plant the bunch, although this won't give me a very nice spread if I do it
this way. How does everyone else do it?

Stu

Hmm - never seen a 25 watt Fluorescent tube thats 12".. but they may exist,
however in my experience a 12" T8 bulb is 13W. This is kind of a odd size
for a 10 gallon aquarium though. I have one, and I have 2 18" bulbs over it
and they fit fine. They are 15Watts apiece (standard T8 Fluorescent size). I
however do have them over driven (2x15wattsx2bulbs) so I have around 45-50
effective watts in that tank. Huge light I know, but I have a lotta plant
and co2 in there to help.

On the planting side of things.. I find that when inserting pre-rooted stem
plants, I tend to insert them under the gravel at a slight angle, and use a
small stone (make sure it's cleaned real good, and not going to affect the
pH of the tank) beside the stem, over the portion thats under the gravel to
hold it down. The extra weight seems to do the trick without having to use
weights or anything - alternately depending on the requirments of the plant,
I use a small hydroponics pot with mineral wool packed in it to hold the
stem - the roots love this stuff, and when it's wet it sinks fairly well -
just bury the pot underneath some gravel, but not too deep! If it's a bulb
or rhyzome plant don't bury the bulb or the rhyzome.


On the planting issue,
"Stuart Mueller" wrote in message
. ..
I have two questions for you. I have a 25w fluorescent bulb lighting my
10Gal aquarium. it is only 12inches long, however it is a not very nice
bluey white colour. I would like to get one of the arcadia tropical bulbs,
or some sort of beauty bulb, as the appearance is nicer but I have only
seen
them in an 8watt. At the moment I have about 2.5 watts per gallon if I
move
over to one of the arcadia bulbs I will only get about 1 watt per gallon.

I am growing Vallis, hygrophilia (difformis I think), a bit of eloda and
some borneo swords. I would like to get some dwarf hairgrass as well.
would
I have enough light for these plants on an eight watt tube?

If not is it possible to get a tube, the same length (12") but with more
than 8watts, that is a quite nice colour?

My second question is, how the hell do you get stem plants like hygrphilia
and eloda to stay in the gravel. I can get two sorts from my LFS, bunched.
where the bottom half inch or so is wrapped in a spongy material and held
closed by the lead weights. Or as separate strands altogether. which ever
I
purchase I tend to separate the stems and plant each stem individually,
this
usually results in quite a few coming up out of the substrate. I think I
will leave them bunched together next time and just remove the lead and
plant the bunch, although this won't give me a very nice spread if I do it
this way. How does everyone else do it?

Stu