# Dirted tank lighting



## Aquahound (Aug 23, 2012)

Hello, I am new to the 'dirted' aquarium scene but I have done two weeks of research. I used an inch of organic non fertilized dirt and I capped with an inch of sand on a twenty gallon high aquarium.
I am running diy co2 I have 200 gph filtration with a tetra whisper 60 air pump. I used cycled filter media and my fish have taken the change well with very little signs of stress. My ph is at 6.6. I currently have 2x false julii corydoras, 1x green emerald cory, 2x panda corydoa, 2x corydora aenus, 3x otocinclus catfish and, 1x dwarf gourami. I have an amazon sword which grew really well and shot runners until I cut off the stem they were growing off of. The amazon sword's crown grew well and was split into 3 different plants. I also have Anubias nana tied onto a rock, and Java moss tied onto a different one. I have one red melon sword which is green due to lack of iron. I also keep dwarf hairgrass. I know it recquires high light but the dwarf hairgrass did really well with low light and co2. It shot up runners in 2-3 weeks. These plants were kept in the same aquarium when it was dirtless and was just sand. The light I previously had was a stock 15 watt T8 which isnt very good for growing plants. I decided to go DIY and try 2x CFL bulbs of 65k and the wattage is 39 watts in total. I know depth in an aquarium affects light and I wanted to know if my lighting is low, moderate or high. I also have been hearing that watts per gallon isn't a very acurate way to meausure lighting in an aquarium. I am new to the forum as a member but, I would enter the site and read threads that applied to me. I would greatly appreciate whoever takes time out of their day to give a fellow aquarist some help. Thank you in advance everyone!


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## wkndracer (Mar 23, 2008)

Depending on the reflector type used this can indeed reach what is considered high light levels. More and more I read threads where people are using CFL as pendent lighting.
Watch the plants observe the tank for algae and adjust the light higher above the tank or reduce the time the lights are left on. 

welcome to the forum and hope this helps.


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## Michael (Jul 20, 2010)

I use two 26w CFLs over my 20 tall. The lamps are mounted vertically (this is important!) in aluminum reflectors I bought at Lowe's. They're sold as "clamp lights".

My lights are 20" above the substrate, and I get about 70 umols of PAR at the substrate, which puts the tank in medium light. If I moved the lights down, I could probably increase that by 50%, giving medium-high to high light.

The spiral compact fluorescents are a great option for small to medium sized tanks. The light level is so easy to adjust--just change the wattage of the lamps, or move the fixtures up or down.


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## Aquahound (Aug 23, 2012)

The day after the thread post I found two 26 watt cfls. Thank you both for the help, I really appreciate it!!! :clap2:


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## fresh864 (Oct 8, 2012)

thx this solved my problem


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