I have a 40G aquarium. The lighting is very weak and not sufficient enough to keep my plants alive. It is 20 watts.
Two questions:
1. I'm looking at buying a 39 watt bulb, would that be too much?
2. What is a good amount of watts for the volume of my tank?
Thanks in advance!
A 39 watt bulb will put your tank just under 1 WPG (watt per gallon).
Ideally it is good to have about 1.5 WPG for most plants. So a 60 watt bulb in your case, or the 39 watt plus the 20 watt.
-FHM
Thanks!
Just a few more questions.
1. What's the highest I can go as far as watts go for my 40Gallon? (I want it to be as bright as I can, without harming the fish/plants obviously)
If you go over 2 WPG, then you need to start to look at pumping Co2 into the tank, so 1.5 WPG is going to be really nice and bright!
2. Is there a way I can make the light have a blue tint rather than white/yellow?
IF you look at the package the bulb comes in before you buy it, you will find that there is a energy/brightness rating. EX. 2,800K, For a bluer light, you want to get up near 18,000K. This arises other problems though. At that level light, you plants will not be able to use the light, just because a light with 18,000K is too high on the scale. Look for more around 10,000K for plants. But, I am sure your plants will adapt to a higher K rating, like 18,000K
3. Do you know where I can get the bulb? Online possibly?
Not too sure on light, maybe eBay? I got mine at my LFS.
Thanks again.
