First large planted tank (180g)

[cohazard]

Hello everyone,

I'm starting my first large planted tank (my only previous experience with planted tanks are with 10g's with 20w cf lights, no co2 or ferts), and I just want to put my ideas out there as far as lighting goes, and see what you think.

The tank is 24" tall, and 72" long, and 24" wide.

I'm buying a 48" CF strip light that uses 2 x 65w PC bulbs, which I will place towards the back of the tank, in the middle, which will leave a 12" space on each end of the tank where I plan to put large anubias.

Towards the front of the tank, I will place a 48" 40w NO tube.

So, will those two 65w lights be strong enough to grow high light plants in the middle-rear section of my tank?

Will the 40w NO be able to grow different species of crypt and anubias in the front of the tank?

TIA

 

[Mgamer20o0]

well i would go with t8 over the t12 bulbs.

night now i have 6x32w t8 bulbs and 2x65w over my 120. 72l 24d 18w

i have had great growth for most things i have tried. if your wanting higher lighted plants i would go with more lighting.

check out ahsupply.com for some more CF lighting

 

[cohazard]

I was thinking about upgrading to AHsupply's 36" 96w lights later on, depending on what works with the 65w lights.

I guess I'm not shooting for high light plants, or reds for that matter... just the medium and low light stuff.

 

[Mgamer20o0]

what i say is try it out and see what happens. if your not looking for high light plants or red plants you wont need as much.

 

[90galfresh]

I ran a 150 Gal (72 x 18 x 28 I think) planted tank with 4x 32 watt T-8 6500k bulbs for a little while. I was able to grow some low to low-mid light plants. Seems to me that you should be able to do the same. I had 2 48" twin tube light fixtures, overlapping in the center section of the tank.

I wanted to go to higher light plants and see what I could do with groundcover stuff, so I upgraded to a 72" coralife 4 x 96 PC fixture, and it is a lot brighter. I have 2x 6500 k bulbs and 2x 10,000k bulbs. I run 2 of the bulbs for a total of 9 hours, and have the other two come on for 3 hrs in the middle to simulate noon sun. Seems to work well for most stuff.

 

[cohazard]

Thanks for the help guys

MGamer, do you dose ferts or run co2? Nice sig btw.

 

[Mgamer20o0]

i started by just adding co2. things grew faster. i started to add dry ferts and things started growing even faster.