lighting my 65 gallon

[Fish Fingers]

hey i was wondering what type of light i will need to light my 65 gallon tank and how many watts i will need. I want to have plants but i dont want them to die from the wrong lighting. The type of lighting i want to have is high lighting. is there a cheaper way to light a tank then buying those light stand reflecter things from a fish shop? im newbish to this whole lighting thing so if ive said somethign wrong please dont bash me

 

[Yano]

You are going to want to get 130-260 watts of lighting. You could always build your own hood, but this will require some wiring skills.

 

[sinistral]

The cheapest way I can think of is to get a glass cover for the tank and buy some shop lights at a hardware store and mount them over the tank.

 

[Bol]

The type of lighting i want to have is high lighting.

This usually means you want at least 3 watts per gallon of light (200W +). However, ...

to light my 65 gallon tank

What are the dimensions of your tank? The only 65 gallon tank I know of is 36" long, 18" 'deep' (front to back) and 24" tall. If that's the size of your tank, then it sort of complicates things.

 

[digital_run]

Hey there Fish fingers...i have a 65 gal. (48x18x18) and i currently have 160 watts of lighting over my tank and my plants are doing great....Now i found that the cheapest way to get to this is "shopping" around....I found flouresent light fixtures at a local Home Depot for $12.00 .... These hold 2 40 watt bulbs....I got 2 of them...Plus they had artifical daylight bulbs and aquarium bulbs for $6 and $8 each. I spent a little more money and got 2 bulbs from my local Ifs which cost a bit more but i think are worth it... When your looking at bulbs try finding ones that are 5600k ...anyways my total setup is worth about $70 but id be cheaper with dif bulbs...anyways hope i helped good luck!

ÐR

 

[Silly me]

If you get fullspectrum lights you might find that 3 watts per gallon or more is needed for a heavy planted tank, but in special LFS bulbs most seem to get the same growth with 2 watts per gallon..

Look for fullspectrum lights these do work well and cost a lot less.

Or get the right LFS lights and mix them 50/50 with normal cool whites

 

[Fish Fingers]

Thanks for the info guys. My tank is 48x18x18. I'll have a look around at a few different places when i get the chance.