what are my lighting options?

By bulb do you mean flourescent strip bulbs or regular incandescent bulbs? If you are using regular incandescent bulbs then an easy solution to get better lighting would be just to replace them with compact flourescent screw in light bulbs. (I recommend Phillips daylight marathon, can be bought at home depot). If you mean that it has flourescent strip lights then you may need to upgrade the whole lighting fixture. BUT FIRST lets look at what type of plants you are keeping.

Some plants do not require much lighting at all ie. java fern, java moss, hornwort and some others.

By the sounds of it though you have flourescent strip lighting. I don't know where you read 165wpg but that would be OVERKILL if not impossible. Anyway those wpg are not a real good measure of how much lighting you require because watts is just how much power the light consumes, it is not directly correlated to output.

If you want to upgrade your lighting consider how much you would like to spend. Coralife freshwater normal flourescent (t5 bulbs) strips are fairly inexpensive and have good output.


Here are some options for you
http://www.bigalsonline.com/catalog/category.xml?pcid1=1843;category_id=1875

http://www.bigalsonline.com/catalog...16;page=2;sort=;pcid1=1843;pcid2=;breadcrumb=

You may want to get a different length depending on how you want to set it up above your tank.

Here's what I did with my 55 gal...

Yes, I bought the same setup from Wally-Mart.

Found a 4 x 55W CF fixture on ebay, Including shipping, it cost me $85
Petsmart purchase: 2 x 24" glass tops @ ~$10 ea.
I took one of the cheesy fixtures that came with the tank and use the extra 15 Watts over my 25 Gal to give that tank 45 Watts.

With the CF fixture, 2 of the 4 bulbs are actinic so I simply don't use that bank of lights right now, still gives a solid 2WPG and my plants love it. Yes, I'll be getting 2 more regular CF's in a few weeks when money allows.

the current 2 x 55W lighting is letting Cabomba grow like crazy, also Anachairis, Mermaid, & Red Ludwegia going crazy too!

Just sharing what I'm doing with my 55 Gal

let me know by PM if you're interested in the dealer that I bought my CF Fixture from.


Good Luck!

-TF

Onikun hit it right it dead on! Java vern, some crypts (var. Lutea) and anubias are ok with low light.

If you don't want to spend a lot of money, You could just DIY.

TetraFreak said:

Yes, I bought the same setup from Wally-Mart.

Found a 4 x 55W CF fixture on ebay, Including shipping, it cost me $85
Petsmart purchase: 2 x 24" glass tops @ ~$10 ea.

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You could skip the CF for now, and just buy a 4 foot shop light (about $10.00)
Get some of the GE 6500k bulbs. (about $10.00)
Skip the actual glass top made for aquariums and get a hardware store to cut you some plate glass. Leave a few inches at the back so you can feed the fish. (about $5-$6)
It may not be the nicest tank to look at, but you've more than doubled your watts for $25.00.

I have the same walmart set-up. I ordered a retrofit from aquarium hobbyist supply (AHS) and set up 2 WPG in the existing hoods. My hubby set it up in about 45 minutes. It's a little over $100 and works great! Website is ahsupply.com

jackie

canufeelme said:

i have an air pump running 4 bubble stones in the tank. should those only be ran at night only? i got them and the plants at the same time and have been running the air pump all the time (few days now). i thought that would be good for the tank but i think i read that the air pump should be on at night. i could be wrong. thanks for the help

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I personally wouldn't run it because you'll be driving away a lot of Co2 thats beneficial to plant growth.