Help re light requirements

[PrincessFish]

Well it seems that I bought a 'difficult', high light requirement plant (ludwigia grandulosa - see link below) at the auction and it is not doing so well  in my standard 'Waterhome 25' with <1w/g of light (a 20W T8).
What can I do to up the light? 
Is there such a thing yet as an adaptor from T8 to T5?  So that I could switch - from what I hear the T5s provide more light???
Any help is welcome!! Thanks!

http://www.plantgeek.net/plantguide_viewer.php?id=153 

[BigDaddy]

The lighting that you currently have is insufficient.  You'd have to completely retrofit your waterhome with something more powerful.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

[PrincessFish]

Ok so what does a 'complete retrofit' entail??
Oh dear, I smell an excuse for a second tank coming on!!

[gonna_b_no_1]

you mean I gotta make excuses to get another tank? 

[BigDaddy]

It basically means the equipment in your hood (ballast, end caps and bulbs) would have to be removed and replaced with something more high powered.  It also means, if you really want to keep that plant, that you will need some kind of CO2 system, as without CO2 in a high light tank, you will wind up with nothing but dead plants and lots of live algae.

[PrincessFish]

I do have CO2 and also 2+ inches of flourite.  I just put in a second CO2 system (Hagen ladder) as the one system was only keeping my CO2 at 5ish and it dropped dramatically when I had some old yeast and went about 3 days with nothing.  I'm back up to 5 now and the second system has just started pumping out CO2 this evening.

Will increasing the number of hours of light be enough to keep this plant alive with CO2 at 10? (might be able to get it up to 15 or 20 by adding bs) or would even that be wishful thinking?

Not sure its worth retrofitting this tank.  I do want a second tank (70-90g) but think as a rookie I should wait until the fall to get more experience and also make sure that I still want a second tank after getting through some more realistic experience.  I know that 2 months under my belt is nothing!

If I am able to make it to Monday's meeting (uncertain at this point) I may bring this plant to PFG (who was bidding against me) and stick with stuff that does ok in my tank until I move into the big time with serious lighting and compression delivered CO2.

Thanks for all the advice!

pF

[sniggir]

well when you do decide to get your serious tank Pm me and we can build your lighting system together

Pat

[PrincessFish]

Pat, do you have an idea of how difficult and costly it would be to upgrade this one?  It isn't that I absolutely don't want to do it just that I was figuring that it might not be worth it.

pF