Planted aquarium Lighting Help

[mrgarethpugh]

I have a juwel trigon 190l tank and have set it up as a planted aquarium....

I need to upgrade the lighting as at the moment it only has 32 watts!!

I think i need like 200 watts, any ideas what i can use??

Also what kelvin should i be using and is it the same as wattage.

Please help me as i'm coming up with nothing on this subject!!:help:

 

[jm1212]

200 watts would be way to much. thats over 1 watt per litre, which is ALOT of lighting.

your tank is about 50 gallons, so if you needed to upgrade moving up to a 50 watt light would be a better idea.

look for full-spectrum lights.

 

[mrgarethpugh]

I thought i needed 5 watts per gallon, any idea how i can achieve this??

 

[jmhart]

If you stick with low light plants, no co2, no ferts, you don't need more lighting.

If you want to add co2 and ferts, you should go up to 100watts or more of ~6500k lighting

 

[mrgarethpugh]

I have a co2 injection system and have used eco complete substrate. i also dose with iron and ferts. Any ideas how to upgrade my lighting?? Can i just buy stronger bulbs or do i have to change the whole unit?

 

[Plecosterone]

If they are fluorescent bulbs you cannot buy bigger wattage bulbs. The ballast will not run them. The only way to get more light out of the bulb you have is to overdrive it with a bigger electronic ballast but this will still not give you anywhere near the light you need. You could try 4' shop lights which are cheap but don't look great or buy a new canopy, or retrofit if it is possible with something from AHSupply. Quite a few people in here use them and say that they are great.

 

[cstrohmeyer]

I agree that 200 watts is more than you need.
Depending upon the amount of CO2 you are adding or as others have said, low light plants this may be adequate depending on the PAR and Kelvin out put (6400 K)of your current lamp.
With lighting technology growing at such a rapid rate, many terms such as watts per gallon are but generalizations any more. If you are considering high light plants the new 6400 K T2 lamps/fixtures may be worth considering.

I would recommend reading this article for more information about lighting:
http://americanaquariumproducts.com/Aquarium_Lighting.html

 

[sardesign]

just remember too much light and too much co2 may give you quick growth, but it is going to be a hassle to keep up. these type of tanks can be finicky as a little too much or little of one or more ferts can cause an algae crisis. i'm having trouble keeping the plants at bay with 260 watts in a 100 gallon tank [co2 injection and using EI dosing]. check out threads from planted brain [tom barr].