Lighting on 5G Mini-Bows?

[Velvet AciD]

I know a few of the posters have these little 5 gallon Mini-Bow setups, what are they missing? Heater? Additional filtration?

And also, how many WPG do they put out? Would it be enough to make a feeble attempt at growing Glosso with a thick substrate (higher towards the lights)?

 

[catfishmike]

if you were lucky you could find a smaller 6500 k screw in pc floresent bulb at 15-20 watts which would give you 3-4 watts per gallon.if not a 10 watt will do.just make sure to plant real good or else the algae will come.i have not had favorable results with the screw ins made for aquarium use so far. these tanks seem to lose a lot of water to evaporation.it will need a good heater.i say good because small tanks like the minibow 5 can have big temp swings.a good heat will keep that in check.a cheep one probably won't come on enought to keep the water consistant.i don't know off hand if you could grow glosso but with a thick substrate and co2 it should be possible.

 

[shewlett]

We have two MiniBow 5 gallon tanks. A couple of weeks ago I installed an AllGlass Mini Compact 10 watt flourescent bulb in each one and am pleased with the results. They are a huge improvement over the stock 15 watt incandescent bulbs that came with the tanks. Here is the link to where I bought them:

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/produ...catid=9870&Ne=40000&R=3883&Np=1&N=2004+113176

As to heating we originally tried the Marineland Visi-Therm Deluxe 25 watt heaters but both of them (one bought locally and the other over the internet) proved to be untrustworthy with temperatures often climbing 6 degrees or more Fahrenheit over what they were set for and with out notice ... they were impossible to dial in and calibrate plus the red knob on the top to change the thermostat is incredibly hard to turn, my wife can't do it. We now use Hagen Tronic 50 watt heaters and love them ... they do exactly what they are supposed to do.