Lighting Question
- Thread starter JamesC
- Start date
the way you figure out watts per gallon (wpg) is divide total watts from lights by the size of your tank. so your saying you have 50 watts divided by a 10 ga tank would be 5 wpg, which would qualify as high lighting. r u sure they are 25 w bulbs? the spectrum also has something to do with it, do u know what type of bulbs they are?
ohhh, i see. well i dont think those bulbs will give the right spectrum of light if your going for a planted tank (thats the whole high, med, low light thing). if your just looking for a bright appearance than it may work im just not sure about the balast on the light fixture u have???
5WPG is pretty high light assuming the spectrum is ok... if carefull consideration isnt given you could end up with some nasty algae problems. Most light can grow plants, usually folks go for the 'daylight' bulbs that provide a decent amount of light in both spectra for plants and also for us to see. Often seen on small tank hoods that have the screw in lightbulbs is people that swap them out for the spiral flourescent replacement bulbs that are available in 'daylight' and only cost a few dollars (~$4-6 usually).
I have been growing some low-light plants in a very low tech 20G tank with only a 15W T6 bulb. But higher light is needed for many plants, all depends on what you want and how much work your willing to do.
I have been growing some low-light plants in a very low tech 20G tank with only a 15W T6 bulb. But higher light is needed for many plants, all depends on what you want and how much work your willing to do.
Those would be ok in low light. Remember that light is only part of the equation with the more damanding plants that you desire. As for my low light tank I tired upgrading the bulb and that seemed to help a bit. It originally came with a 20W flourescent bulb (18" if I remember correctly) that came with the canopy. It seemed ok, but was getting over a year old and recomended to replace bulbs every year at the most for plants, so I tired a 15W Lighting Rod T6 bulb, the aqua-flora plus. I cant tell how much if any effect the bulb had since at the same time I started dosing regularly with very small amounts of flourish excell. But the green has much intesnified in the plants and are showing some new found vigor. Some people dont like the 'color' of the plant only bulbs but I dont mind the aqua-flora plus its a blueish-purple color and really makes some of the fancy guppies fluoresce. With only one 15w bulb I wanted to esnure all the light was in the plant-spectra to make the most out of the light, plus I really just wanted to try the T6 bulb out. Since I am relatively happy with it I have some on order for my 75G tank that I will be trying out soon too.
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