My first attempt at live plants failed miserably becasue of poor lighting. I know I need to spend the money to upgrade my setup to accommodate more wattage. I currently have a 55 gal tank with two 24" hoods/light strips. Each light strip can only hold one bulb and I think the max wattage it can hold is 20 watts. I currently have one 15 watt grow bulbs in each for a very dim looking 30 watts of light. ( All the 18" bulbs I saw at the store were 15 watts, didnt see any stronger )
My question is this: Does anyone have any advice on how I can upgrade so that I could plant some low/mid light requirement plants? Im guessing I need to upgrade my light strip , then possibly the plastic hood to glass hood , and then some new bulbs, but what wattage? and how many bulbs? Do I go for a single hood or stick the the double set up?
Im hoping this upgrade could be done for $100 or less.
Thanks for the help.
My question is this: Does anyone have any advice on how I can upgrade so that I could plant some low/mid light requirement plants? Im guessing I need to upgrade my light strip , then possibly the plastic hood to glass hood , and then some new bulbs, but what wattage? and how many bulbs? Do I go for a single hood or stick the the double set up?
Im hoping this upgrade could be done for $100 or less.
Thanks for the help.