Advice please?

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charbel101

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Apr 27, 2014
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Hello guys :) im gonna setup a 20 gallon planted tank next week but i need to know something about my light my light is compact fluorecent 55 watt in what categorie i will be in high light planted tanks or moderate? and how im gonna save myself from algae ? that's what i found on the box i wish someone could tell me if it's a good light and thanks.


 

Steven 1

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Feb 27, 2014
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Could you provide a link to the manufacturer's page on this tube? Hoping I can get more information... From my own information, I would guess that a 55W tube would be more than low light on a 20 gallon. Also, is it a 20 long or a 20 high? It makes a difference. I would use 2 10W Compact Fluorescent Lights or 1 full-length T5 NO or 2 20W T8 bulbs for a 20 long, of the bulbs I am familiar with.

I would get more feedback on the bulb from people who are very knowledgeable on the subject - lighting can be tricky.
 

gmh

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Feb 5, 2007
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It's at least medium to high light for a 20 gallon, assuming that's a t5 bulb. It looks like it's somewhere around a 6500k rating, which would be good for plants but I am no expert in deciphering those color spectrum charts.
You will probably need to go with a pretty short photo period, less than 8 hrs at least to start, assuming this is a low tech tank.
Lots of floating plants could help mitigate the brightness of that lamp and associated algae risks.
 

Steven 1

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Feb 27, 2014
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I looked around and here's a link to the Wikipedia CFL page - it's got a lot of information which you may or may not need: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_fluorescent_lamp. I need to know, for one thing, if the CFL is 55 Watts or if it is equivalent to a 55 Watt incandescent bulb. My 10 Watt CFLs are 10 watts native and around 40 watts equivalent to incandescent.

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