how much lighting for 130 gal for beginer plant.

3 wpg is fairly bright. And yes, you'll get algae with that much light if you don't supplement CO2 and keep up on a fertilizer regimen.

You'd probably be fine with as little as 1 wpg if you stick too fairly low light plants. Maybe a little bit higher. 2 wpg would broaden your range and at the same time perhaps be a little easier to control.

Java ferns are good low light plants and will get big given time. A few Swords could give you large splashes of green space and are fairly modest in their lighting requirements. Lots of options.

I'm not very familiar with big fish and the havoc they may play with your plants but thats another angle your going to want to consider.

I've got about 2.5 wpg over my 30 and its bright but not in an overwhelming sort of way. I like it at that level of brightness. The fish have never seemed to mind — not exactly the noon day sun.

newbie2004 said:

hello alll...

i really new to this forum and really new to plant. I had try to kept them b4 but no luck... i have 130 gal fish tank that has been setup for over 2 yr now... fish in there are really healthy. now it time i want to introduce some easy to keep plants. right now the tank is fill with 1 pleco, 1 24" silver arowanna , 2 7" oscar, 1 catfish , 1 16"bicher, the bottom is fill with play sand. 2 200w heater. 2 404 fuval filter. 2 48" shop light fixture(total 80w)

i have read some where that ideal lighting is 3wpg. so in total i would need 390w to be able to keep plant in a 130 gal?? with that much lighting wouldn't alge be a problem? wouldn't it be too much light for the fish??? i don't want the tank fill with lots of plant just 2-3 big plant to add green space that all...


anyway... any reply is greatly thanx...

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In a tank like that I wouldn't even bother trying to plant it, the oscar will pull up and eat every plant it can get it's mouth on. Same with the pleco, it will pull up basically any plant, not sure but I think the arowana will do the same. Even java fern won't be safe.

I know of a gardner who has an arowana, and I know of others with SA cichlid experience. Here's my take on this:

Go for about 2 WPG. Find a few long but low pieces of driftwood. Attach java fern to them using zipties so the fish won't hurt themselves or tear the JFerns off the wood. Set the driftwood near the front of the tank.

Plant Hygro as a background plant. It sounds strange, but the arowana might very well leave it alone. You won't be able to use the regular algae control animals like shrimp and otos, since you are keeping aggressive fish.

As an example, I give you this:


This is where I got the image from.

Oscars and Arowanas, thats almost as wierd as Arowana and Angelfish. Oscars grow to be huge as I am sure you already know, but they tear plants to shreads. You best bet is large Anubias plants and maybe sword plants. Forget about any delicate stem plants.