Lighting Question

[MarcGonsalves]

Okay so I'm a newbie to the hobby, along with my girlfriend who received a tank for Christmas. We have a little 10 gallon tank right now thats running a hang on the back filter and original light bulbs that came in the hood of the tank. As of right now we only have two little tetras (pristella and bloodfin) but would like to get a few easy plants for it. A friend of mine has an old Coralife Compact Flourescent bulb that he used to use, it's 10 watts and screws right into the hood. I was wondering if getting two of these lights (20 watts total) would be okay for us to grow some plants like Amazon Swords and such.

Thanks a lot in advance!
Marc

 

[Persistency]

Any of the species of Anubias would work with the light you have now, because they get most of their nutrients from their roots. I use root tabs for my planted Anubiases and they've been flourishing in my 60 gallon, which has almost no wattage to speak of.

 

[CAPSLOCK]

Java fern will also grow with what you have, or under ~2 WPG as you would have with two of those compact fluorescents. I believe putting 2 10W bulbs on the 10g would be considered low-mid light (the stock lights that come on the tanks hardly count as anything as far as plants are concerned).

 

[lauraf]

Anubias, java fern and java moss, tiger lotus, some crypts, vallisneria, these should grow just fine in low-med light.