My wise goldfish lovers,

How do I quarantine a plant?  How do I do the potassium permanganate or sodium hypo chlorite dip?

I'm a bit baffled on the steps.

thanks

It's usually enough to keep the plant in a bucket or a bowl for a week or two, making sure it gets light and some tank water every now and then. Should they ever carry parasites, they'll all be dead within that time since there are no hosts for them to live on.
Some plants can't handle a salt solution.

You keep the entire plant in the water, it will dry out and die otherwise...

Some pond plants are okay with just the roots covered, but they shouldn't be kept in aquariums in that case

Back with questions.  Lots of mixed opinion out there.....will an uncycled tank kill plants?  I wouldn't think so...plus I did buy special plant/aquarium food to add.

Second some board talk about the lights (for the plants) being to warm for goldfish.

What's your opinion?

scrivens
Do you find your lights over heat the tank?

LED is a bit pricey, but I believe it's running costs is much lower than fluorescent lighting 

Are you after daylight, tropical or marine blue?

If you go for LED then Eco-Aqua LED lamps are pretty good;Eco-Aqua Lamps are sized to replace existing T8 lamps – they are slightly shorter, to enable them to fit between the lamp holders of an existing fitting (or they can fit into the lamp holders with the optional adapter), and are supplied complete with a set of fixing clips for mounting to an aquarium hood or frame. Six lengths are available ranging from 384mm to 1147mm.

you need to measure length and if going for fluorescent you will need reflectors....or are you going to go open top, if so you can fix the lamps to the tank sides with angled brackets whitch may be adjusted to the length of your tank

can you not just swop-out the existing tube for a higher rated one? what make is your lamp set?

It shouldn't be a bulb, T8 aquarium lights are fluorescent tubes

remind me what your tank size is ? 2 x 15W would light a 90 L tank

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those size of tanks generally only come with one fitting in the hood. but sometimes have space for two.

 Since the Power output is  solely dependent on size, you can't change up to a more powerful lamp of the same size like you can with iridescent lamps . The only variable is colour temperature

You have little choice but to either add another tube, or change to LED. With a bigger/longer tank you have more room to mix and match T5/T8



the lamp power is dependent on size:-

Length (cm/inches)   
T5
54.9 / 22"          24 watt
84.9 / 34"          39 watt
114.9 / 46"   54 watt
144.9 / 60"   80 watt

Length (inches)   
T8
15"   15 watt
18"   15 watt
24"   20 watt
30"   25 watt
36"   30 watt
42"   40 watt
48"   40 watt
60"   58 watt


Here is a DIY guide to adding tubes to your aquarium hood(Link is not visible to guests. Please register to view.)

The higher the colour temperature (K) the deeper the light penetrates.

 On smaller aquaria , the single lamp provided is usually only for showing of your fish's colours.  A lamp with a low K rating emits redder light and exhibits more vivid colours than a lamp with a higher K rating (emitting bluer light). Normal-output fluorescent lamps are quite popular in fish-only aquaria.


 In the Freshwater Planted Aquarium , lamps should be used to provide the full spectrum range of light (5500 K to 7500 K), most plants require ( for photosynthesis).

 As a general rule, provide between 2 and 5 watts per gallon. For deeper  tanks the higher the higher figure is desirable.

I'll see if I can write a "lighting guide" if I get the time. My large tank has a fish lamp & a plant lamp