Lighting A 65gal

[pierre109]

Hi was just looking for your opinions on how much light/what type of light i would need to light my 65 gallon tank. At the moment it has one 40 watt bulb but this is to little light.
I am looking at planting water sprite, java moss dwarf hairgrass as a carpet and dwarf anubias while i know these are quite low light plants i need more than 40 watts im guessing. I will be adding diy co2 but do not want to be reliant on it (i want to be able to slack off now and then) and I will also be adding a standard fertiliser. thanks

 

[Gav935]

While I'm not too sure about the light, I would say that it's not worth slacking with CO2, inconsistent levels of it are a surefire way to help algae get a foothold, so it's worth trying to keep it going at a constant rate.

 

[pierre109]

mybe its worth buying a proper setup then? they arent too expensive how long would a standard canister hold?. I wanted to have co2 because iv always had normal tanks with low light plants that did fine but wanted something a lil better for this one. the reason i wanted lighting where i could slack off with the co2 is because i would probably forget to replace it every single month

thanks!

 

[Gav935]

If you can afford it, then pressurised beats DIY hands down, I was pretty lousy at remembering to change the mixture on my old DIY setup, I use a 2kg fire extinguisher based system on my current tank, usually lasts 4-5 months but thats at a pretty high rate.