I need help with fish tank lighting?
I’m having a hard time researching lighting for a planted tank.
I have a 75 + 50 gallon tanks up, and have to get rid of them because we’re moving and won’t have enough room. So I know the basics.
I am going to set up a 20 gallon tall planted tank instead. It is as big around as a ten gallon tank. 20x20x10
It will be my first planted tank.
I have lights for my other tanks, but they have angelfish in them, which don’t like light, so I don’t use them.
I am on a budget and really don’t want to spend more than $50 on lighting.
Should I use fluorescent, compact fluorescent, metal halide or what?
I have a regular hood that hold two 25 watt bulbs. I was going to put some twisty fluorescent bulb that are usually for lamps etc, but heard it has mercury and is bad around water…
I’m very confused. Any help helps and websites are good too.
I’ve got everything figured out but lighting.
Thanks for reading!
There is nothing wrong with using those CFL bulbs that go into normal lamps and they will do the job for many plants. If you already have a hood which can support them, then they would be a good economical alternative for you to try.
The main thing to note is that plants can only use so much light before the co2 and the nutrients in the water can’t keep up any more, and then the rest of the light goes unused, which results in lots of algae problems. In other words, more is not necessarily better.
Now you are going to here about ‘watts per gallon’ a lot, and you need to be careful with that term. These days we have different types of light and some are more efficient then others. Better efficiency means that more actual light is being put out for each watt, and that means less watts per gallon. For typical ‘T8′ style fluorescent, about 1.5 wpg is good for a lower light setup, while with ‘T5′ only 1 wpg is better.
Anyway, it sounds like www.plantedtank.com is a good place for you to visit, just don’t take the real tech-heads too seriously – it’s not nearly as complicated as some guys make it out to be.
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