lighting a 30XH?

[CHINABOY1021]

i really want to get a 25 or a 30XH. the 25 is 24x12x20. 30g is 24x12x24. leaning towards the 30g, i like the square look.

anyways, for lighting, is 85 watts enough for high light. or should i add another 15 watts to make it 100?

the reason why im not absolutely sure if i want the 30 or the 25 is because of trouble aquascaping such a high tank.

any suggestions? im going to have an amazon sword for sure to fill in the top areas. but i cant think of an other plant that looks nice when it reaches 24". plants like rotala and cabomba are nice, but i dont think i can get enough light to the bottom. any suggestions?

after typing this thread, my mind is moving on to the 25gallon. 24x12x20

 

[djlen]

If you are going to put an Amazon Sword in either of those tanks I suggest you consider the higher lighting. Mainly because a large sword will probably end up shading EVERYTHING in the tank.
I've seen how they can shade almost half of a 55 gal. tank which is 48" long. I just think most of them are too large for any tank under 100 gals.
Len

 

[Timmain42]

GL on the Amazon. I will never again aquascape with an Amazon, unless I have to. They grow WAY too fast, and require constant pruning.