120 litre tank lighting

[hadjici2]

I have a 120 litre aquarium and I have access only to Arcadia fluorescent lamps. I can only use 25 watt lamps due to their size. What combinations of lamps would you suggest and how many? The following website has all the Arcadia lamps... http/www.arcadia-uk.com/en/220tropicallamp.html

Thanks.

 

[Nospherith]

3x "original tropical lamp" giving you 75w over 30g so thats about 2.5 wpg. It seems as if the lamp spikes in the right places and considering there isn't a described 6700K lamp or anything that's probably your best bet. Normally I'd say get a variety of lamps 5000-8000K, but you can't go wrong with the original tropicals.Anyway, that will give you enough light to grow most plants. You'll need CO2 and nutrients for the plants and at least 50% of the substrate covered with fast-growing plants.

 

[hadjici2]

Any suggestions of such fast growing plants?

 

[George Farmer]

As zig suggests in your other thread; Most Hygrophila and Ludwigia species. Also Egeria densa, Hydrocotyle leucocephala, Limnophila sessiflora are all fast-growing and easy. The Water Sprite species (Ceratopteris) are good too. Basically most stem plants should grow fairly quickly given sufficient light etc.

I would possibly avoid Echinodorus (Amazon Swords) and Cryptocoryne (Crypts) species for starting plants as they require a nutrient-rich substrate. Vallis should be ok but can be difficult for some to get going.

As for lighting - I stand by my original suggestions from your first post i.e. 2 Arcadia Freshwater and 1 Original Tropical. 2 of each would be better but ensure you have a constant CO2 supply of at least 20ppm.