Help With Lighting

[Matt_B]

Ok so my tank is 36"x"12"x18", So i think that is 29 gallons.

This means if I wanted 2wpg i would need to have 58 (60) watts of lighting. Considering the fact that my tank is only 36" I dont think I can get a 60 watt bulb. So does this mean i need to use 2 or more bulbs with 2 or more lighting starters?.



Thanks Matt B

 

[zig]

Im afraid so, but the news gets even worse not much worse, we measure light for planted tanks in watts per gallon WPG, but the gallons are American gallons, so with the dimensions of your tank you have a 34 US gallon tank (approx) so 2x30 watt tubes would give you 1.8 WPG approx, you would still be able to grow a lot of different plants with this amount of light, but plant species that require high levels of light would struggle with only the 2 tubes over your tank.

You can get twin ballasts which will run both lights together and are a bit cheaper than individual ballasts, you could also consider T5 power compact lighting if you wanted even more wattage but then you are looking at more money again as these would be more expensive and also require a ballast/s depending on how many lights you wish to run.

But having said all that if you want a planted tank with minimal hassle 1.8 WPG would do you fine because at that lighting level it would not be nescessary to supply co2 also.

 

[soggysandwich]

you could get power compact lights which can get high wattage bepending on the size, but those can get costly.