sawyer1206
08-20-2006, 8:02 PM
I am currently trying to design a canopy for my 55 gallon aquarium and I am seeking advise on plant lighting. Is the color band in metal halide better for the plants over the less expensive florescent.
dorkfish
08-21-2006, 12:09 AM
Metal halide bulbs have many different spectrums- some of them are great for plants, others are not. The same goes for flourescent. You want to get a bulb that is in the 6-7 kelvin range, or close to it, if you want to keep plants.
However, regarding actual light output, halides are said to be the best in the reefkeeping (remember, this second paragraph is regarding output not spectrum) world, however some people take this too far in saying that halides are the only light source for high light corals, while flourescent can in fact do the job if you have enough of it and the tank isn't abnormally dep. The average halide is also said to put out more light-per watt then the average flourescent. Also you can fit a lot more halide light than flourescent light in a given area, so you might want to take this in consideration if you want a super high light tank with plants growing over an inch a day.
If your just starting out with plants, just put a 4 foot- two bubl shopliht over the tank - this wil give you enough light for low-medium light plants, and you won't need CO2, and you'll have a lot easier time managing nutrients. If you were to go with hallides, at the very minumum you would have two 70 watt bubls or one 150 watt bulb, so much light that it would make this tank quite a challenge to get into the right plant-nutrient-light ballance and if something were to go wrong, algae problems would be quick to show up and fast to grow and possibly kill all your plants.