Is A 260 Watt Light Fixture Overkill On A 55 Gallon?

[Nicolas]

I want to buy a compact flourescent light fixture for my 55 gallon aquarium. The one I am looking at gives out 260 watts at 6700 kelvin. Is this to much wattage to grow amazon swords, micro sword, anachris, wisteria, cabomba, jungle val, java fern, and so on.

 

[aaronnorth]

4.7WPG you will have which is to much, but the only way around it which may work is to dose loads of nutrients and go down the EI route. 100w will be ok to grow the plants your after becuase they are low light and by keeping the lighing low you no need to add co2.

 

[sjdriscoll]

You should be able to 'downgrade' the wpg by putting some tubes in that are softer or even moonlight.

To run at 4wpg would take a lot of care and big gahoona's too!

 

[Themuleous]

Don't forget that you can run a lower watt tube in a ballast. e.g. you can run a 20w tube in a 30w ballast it'll burn the tube out and could be a fire risk..

I would also say that 260w over a 55g is too much unless you're gonna be ultra precise with water changes, co2 and fert addition.

Sam