Watts Per Gallon?

[Christine1014]

Hi all! I've been wanting to put some real plants in my 44 gallon. I've been researching, but I've got one big question.
I read somewhere that most plants are successful with between 2 and 3 watts per gallon. My 44-gallon tank is a tall hex; splurged and bought the whole tank/stand set-up. I just looked on the back of the light unit, and it says Daylight, 60Hz, 17W. Daylight's good, right? But what about the 17W thing??? 17W/gallon seems way too high, and 17W for a 44 gallon tank is practically nothing! (But it *seems* bright!) So if it IS indeed a 17W light and I need something brighter, it it safe to just get a brighter bulb, or am I going to need to buy a new fixture??? I'm so confused!

 

[nicklfire]

Normally the right wattage is around 2.4 watts per gallon. That's on a standard height tank. Because you have a Tank that's higher than normal your going to need something alot more than 2.4 to penetrate the water and get down to the roots of the plants. I'm going to say... someone correct me if I'm wrong , but you'll need around 3.5 Watts per gallon. Now that might be a little more difficult to find a lighting fixture for your type of tank.You don't see many guys with planted tanks with a hex design. I'm not saying they arnt out there but it's not the norm. If i were you to make it easier for yourself and less expensive setup a 55 gallon tank and begin from there. Save you allot of hassle and probably money in the end. Your right your 17W aint much with your 44 gallon. Your running about .3 WPG. It could seem bright but any light is bright. You want a 6700K spectrum light aswell. Maybe some other people will have better input but i would think about running a 55 gallon tank or something such as that.

 

[Themuleous]

As Nicklfire says, you've got next to no light over the tank. However the amount of light you want will depend on what sort of plants you want to grow. There are a number of tanks on here where people have low light and they get excellent results, so by no means do you have to have lots and lots of light, far from it. As for increasing the light you have, the only way is to add more bulbs. You've got a 17w under there already, if you could add say a power compact 36w light you'd have a better chance of growing plants.

There is a list of undemanding plants in my sig, by Llj, take your pick.

Sam

 

[Christine1014]

Thanks guys! I think a new tank is out of the question -- the space, money, and husband are all prohibitive!
I'll have to look into the power compact bulb...

thanks again!