New Light for 50 gallon... Finnex Stingray?

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Ozzie Boss

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So I bought a 50 gallon (36in,18in,19in) on craigslist which came with everything including an old 26ish inch fluorescent light. The tank before it was sold didn't have live plants, but I wanted to see if I could grow some low light plants with it. After 2 months of having the tank the plants were doing okay, but not thriving. So I was looking for a new and relatively cheap LED light to upgrade and found the Finnex Stingray LED 36 inch. Is this a good upgrade from the old fluorescent light? Is this a good pick for low light plants? The plants I have in there now are wisteria, vallisneria, money wort, crypts, and anubias. I dose easy green every week. And as of right now I have a stocking of 3 juvenile angels, 7 white skirts, 4 corys, and an EB Acara that will be added this week. Thank you.
 
I know nothing about the LED brand, and my experience with LED has not been successful; most of it is very blue with insufficient red, and red is important for photosynthesis. But those specifically intended for planted tanks appear to be good, if quite expensive. Others may comment on this for you. But I wanted to suggest an alternative that may be significantly less money, if that is a concern (it is for me!).

You may be able to remove the light unit from the housing and install a new one with more tubes. I have done this with all my T8 fluorescent lights now, as they do give out (the ballasts) over time. Over my 36-inch 40g I have two 24-inch T8 tubes. Home Depot have (or had) these as "shop lights" and this fit nicely inside the housing. Two 24-inch tubes using good tubes like the Life-Glo would certainly be good light for low to moderate light requiring plants. I did the same for my 33g tank too.

A word on your plant species...Wisteria is high light requiring, and Vallisneria is close.
 
Hey Byron. So I scrapped the sting ray due to the lack of wattage only 20. The housing unit thingy only allows one tube. And for me to buy a housing for 2 t5 fluorescent bulbs it would cost 50 dollars plus the continual purchase of new bulbs after a year. Another concern is that the 50 doesn't have a "lid" per say. It came with 2 "lids" one being a black plastic lid that goes in front of the tank, and a clear one that you put the housing unit on. The clear lid just fits the old housing unit that fits one bulb. I assume the housing unit that fits 2 bulbs will not fit the lid. This is very confusing to explain, so if you need a picture I understand. Anyway I found another LED by the name beams work.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01KYELCSA/?tag=ff0d01-20

I heard a lot of good reviews on it. I however am no expert on lights, and for all I know this couldn't grow a leaf of anubias. So if anyone could check it out please let me know if it will be ok.

As for the val and wisteria. I knew that val needed more light, but had no idea wisteria required high light! I swear I remember hearing this was a low light plant. As of right now the wisteria is doing great, but they are getting a bit brown towards the bottom of the plant. Whoops.
 
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I was thinking about getting the 36 or 48 inch version by the way.
 
As for the val and wisteria. I knew that val needed more light, but had no idea wisteria required high light! I swear I remember hearing this was a low light plant. As of right now the wisteria is doing great, but they are getting a bit brown towards the bottom of the plant. Whoops.

That is probably the light. Stem plants in general need higher light (Pennywort is maybe an exception) because they are faster growing. That means more nutrients to balance. But the lower leaves tend to brown and fall off as the stems grow upward toward the light. Some people just keep pulling the stems up and cutting off the growing tips to replant. Or get stronger light, but then you have fish issues and nutrient insufficiencies. Wisteria will also grow floating, along the surface, which can be effective.

I know nothing about LED so I will leave that for others to advise. Replacing the ballast etc can work if the housing is large enough to allow for what you want to insert. I was fortunate that I had dual-tube fixtures to begin with so when they gave out it was fairly easy to fit a new shop light fixture with two side-by-side tubes in the housing. Of course, if you have carpentry skills, you can build your own light housing to sit on the tank. I'm no good at this type of work, replacing the "innerds" stretched my skills as it was.
 

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