Lights For Plants Question

[erk628]

Hello everyone, I have a question about watts for a planted tank. Now I have a 55 gallon freshwater tank and I want to have a wide varity of plants. Right now I have only 2 bulbs with a total of 30 watts. From what I have read on here the rule is 2 watts per gallon for a planted tank. So that would mean I would need 110 watts. I was looking in the Fosters and Smith magazine and they have a hood thats called Nova Extreme T-5 with Lunar Lights. Now the one I was looking at was 48" 216 watt:four 54 watt with 4 Lunar Lights. Here is what the description says. Brillant high output T-5 fluoresent bulbs paired with nocturnal glow of LED lunar lights. 2 leading edge advances in lighting technology contained in a compact, energy - efficient fixture for complete 24-hour lighting. Features microprocessor-controlled, internal, electronic, ballast, integrated cooling fans, parabolic reflector, protective splash lens, and four power cords. Includes docking mounts and Slimpaq 460nm Actinic and 10000K T-5 HO lamps. Now my question is would this be to many watts for my tank. Thanks in advance to everyone that responds

 

[voo]

30W over a 4' tank with 2 tubes sounds a bit odd. Are the tubes 4'? Usually the longer tubes have more power to them, probably 30W each.

As for the lighting you're looking at, it is very high light and you would definitely need CO2, is this something you're looking at getting? The tubes are meant for marine tanks and your tank would do better if you replaced them with tubes of a lower temperature, around 6000k.

Bear in mind that you don't have to run all 4 tubes. You could run the light with 3 tubes and still get good growth.

 

[erk628]

30W over a 4' tank with 2 tubes sounds a bit odd. Are the tubes 4'? Usually the longer tubes have more power to them, probably 30W each.

As for the lighting you're looking at, it is very high light and you would definitely need CO2, is this something you're looking at getting? The tubes are meant for marine tanks and your tank would do better if you replaced them with tubes of a lower temperature, around 6000k.

Bear in mind that you don't have to run all 4 tubes. You could run the light with 3 tubes and still get good growth.

Voo, My tank has a bar in the mibble so I have two hoods, the bulbs are 18 inchs long. The ones I have right now are Aqua Glows 18000. Also C02 ws something I was thinking of getting, I found this kit were you add the ingredants for $25.00. The setup I posted above was $200.00. My other idea was getting these kits were you get ends like were the bulbs plug in and you can just put them in your hoods. My friend had the same hood as me just a little bigger and he got those kits there like $16.00 for a set of two also they come with a power supply. So the only thing I would have to get is new bulbs. What do you think would be the best thing for me to do to be able to grow a wide varity of plants. Also what kind of bulbs and what watts and K I think thats what it is like mines 18000