Someone messaged me about what lights I use and how I keep my tank clean... I will post my reply here so others can see it and since the good people of this forum helped me develop this routine:
The lights I use are The Current 20 Inch Satellite Power Compact Fixture w/ Lunar Light (40 Watts). The item description, price, etc. can be found on this link below:
As far as keeping the tank clean continuously, I do the following on a routine basis:
- I do a 25% water change weekly, vacuuming the substrate thoroughly.
- I feed once a day, for about one minute, not letting the food ever reach the bottom.
- I keep 2 angelfish and 6 harlequin rasboras in a 20 gallon... but I have two filters that move about 240 gph (12 times my tank size)... and I have a carbon bag with Black Diamond Carbon that i keep in one filter to keep the water odor-free and clearer (in addition to the carbon that comes in both my filter pads). I replace the carbon about every 3-4 weeks.
- I leave my lights on a timer, for roughly 6 hours each day, and I don't keep the tank in direct sunlight. This keeps away almost all algae.
- I test my water regularly with API Liquid Test Kit... making sure my levels are always Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate between 5-15ppm, and my Ph is constantly at 7.4. If any of these numbers are off, I fix accordingly, usually with more frequent water changes until they level out again.
- If I do run into any other issues, I post on the forum and wait feedback.
Hope this helps for you, if you have any other questions feel free to ask, and the forum is a great place to learn through other peoples' similar situations. Good luck!
Satilites are really nice lights Spongbob. I'm envious. My crappy Jebo VHO just crapped out after it went swimming. Cheaply built. I will probably get a Satilite someday with moon lights. Very cool.
Why you're not growing even one live plant I don't get, but you sure did a nice job with the artificials.
Thanks miami and peter!!!! that means a lot coming from two experienced hobbyists... so thanks :)
Peter, I will probably move into planted this year. And my lights are great, but there is no separate switch between the actinic moon light and the regular, thats the only downside.
That's weird. That means you can't run just moon lights for night time?
Don't know if you're an electronics person, but I bet it's pretty somple to buy a switch and splice it into the light so there's a seperate circuit for the moon lights.
Yeah, this is the case unfortunately... and as far as messing with the switch, the unit isn't the highest of quality and sometimes turns off if i shake it too hard, so i dont have the patience to mess with it while its working.
The salesperson who sold me it let me know it was a great light to have if i wanted to upgrade to planted or even salt if i wanted, so i purchased it without knowing much about it. I guess I did ok, but it seems much for my application... although i do love the color combo it gives off.
That just seems weird that they wouldn't put 2 switches in. I think there's a trade in a lot of aquarium lights that's somehow a scam. I don't know, but it seems like there's all these lights, like the Jebo garbage I have, that may use good bulbs but that's the only good thing about them. The fixtures are cheaply constructed and the wiring is thrown together as fast and cheap as possible. You probably thought, as most buyers of your light probably thought, that if it has moon lights there must be a separate circuit for use when the main lights are turned off. Maybe you have a fake Satilite? At least it runs the good bulbs I guess.
I think I paid too much for the smaller VHO Jebo I have. The bigger 4 bulb VHO I have I can't even find a brand name on it. It has 3 crappy little cooling fans that all run at different speeds, stop sometimes, and make a lot of noise. At least there's 2 switches so I can turn 2 of the 4 lights off.
I don't know. I'm pissed I need to buy new bulbs all around and that will cost about $450 bucks! The best light I have is a double 95 watt PC I found in the garbage!
With what you have you should be able to grow low light plants like weeds. You could grow anubias really easy with the gravel you have, and you should actually be able to grow higher light plants like microsword and dwarf hair grass, but you may need plant substraight for that.
Yeah if you step up in the satellites you get the one with the switch for the lunar... i just didn't know when i bought the light that there were these differences. Next time i'll know... and this was wayyy before I joined the forum, or I would have asked you guys.
I guess if you like the look of the combo of main lights and lunar lights all's good, but I thought lunar lights were specificly made to give a low light "night light" effect.
I'm wishing I had moon lights because my 2 nicer tanks are in my bedroom and moon lights to fall asleap to would be sweet.
I have the single satellite 48" and yes there is no switch for the moon light but with my timer I don't need one. When my main lights go out the moon light comes on. I believe the dual satellites come with the extra switches.
