Regular Lights? or

[Wolfdog]

I am going to upgrade my two 32 watt lights up to 40.

I can either buy 40watt flourescent tubes from wal mart for a few bucks, or buy 20$ plant lights at Petsmart.

What should i get? and is it worth it to get the plant lights?

Thanx,

Wolf

 

[rdd1952]

It probably won't matter much. The difference between the 32W you have and the 40W your getting won't make much difference in your plant growth or the amount of light in the tank. I doubt you will even notice a visual difference in the light. If you have live plants, I would strongly suggest upgrading to power compacs. That's really the only way to get the wattage you need to keep your plants healthy. I have found hellolights.com to be one of the cheapest places to get lights online.

 

[zig]

Well depends on if you want to grow plants or not, the regular tubes are probably just ordinary household flourescents and if they are they wont be suitable for growing plants, they will be fine to view your fish and light your tank but probably no more than that.

They have to be the right spectrum to grow plants, read gf225s pinned article about lighting at the top of this section, and then find out if the tubes at Walmart are the correct spectrum to grow plants, odds are they probably arnt.