Southeast Asian Theme 90 Gallon

with lower light fixture set ups you may want to develop a staggered bulb replacement program to even out the diminishing light put out by flourescents over time. when I had 30 watts over a 20 gallon I found with the cheap GE plant and aquarium bulbs they had to be replaced after 6 months of use for my plants to grow. I made the light levels more even by replaceing one every 3 months alternating between which one I replaced. I wrote the date I put them into use on the metal end of the bulb with a sharpie so I didn't have to remember which bulb to replace. with 4 cheap bulbs that you get about 6 months use out of, I would replace one every 1.5 months on a rotateing schedual so you don't have all new bulbs over the tank nor all old bulbs either.

In the end it comes down to wheather you buy cheap bulbs or pay a little more. if you caugh up for the more expensive bulbs that makes lower wpg more doable than if you get bulbs like i did. The expensive bulbs can be used a bit longer as well.

A 90 gallon is 4' long, what about useing 2 4' fixtures that holds 40 watt bulbs? that would give you (4*40/90)=1.7 wpg. The fact that the 90 is 24" deep means you would need a little more light than you would over say a 75g that is only 20" deep to grow the same plants.

I had crypts wentii, beckettii, and willisii, java fern, hygrophilia, melon sword growing in that 20 gallon. Java moss grew but didn't look that good, IMO it needs closer to 2 wpg to look good.
 
If you're injecting CO2, your plants may forgive you a little on the lower light. I have 4 4' bulbs over my 90Gal. They're Zoomed bulbs (T8) and I grow some "higher" light plants like glosso, Stargrass (don't expect foliage all the way down to the substrate) Alternanthera reineckii, Riccia on driftwood at the bottom, Tropica swords...um...ignore those that aren't "higher" light plants :)
YMMV
 
the measurements of the tank are actually 60" L X 20" H X 18" W I bought it from someone who ordered it from TRUVU to fit in the wall at a local dive shop. it was previously a saltwater tank and came without a hood or lightstrip. so the lights I have are about 4' long and centered over the tank. I think I will look around to maybe try to find some higer watt bulbs for my shop lights ( which by the way I bought at a garage sale for $1 each! score!)

I have a piece of driftwood that I am going to turn into a sort of java fern mound and like I said I have a couple of crinium "water onions" and a tiger lotus waiting. the tiger lotus is already growing strong and up to the surface on my 20 gallon tank and so I can hopefully get it to grow some underwater leaves in the new tank

Asian ambulia sounds like a good choice I will see where I am at with the stuff i already have in there and my java fern mountain and the start looking into co2. I have DIY on my 20 gallon but I think it will take a lot more than a 2 liter bottle to get enough CO2 into this new tank.

Thanks for all the helpful suggestions!!
 
your shop lights support a standard wattage that is based on the length of the bulbs that fit it. the only way to get more wattage is either longer bulbs and thus longer fixtures or more fixtures.

The other suggestion that would make a difference on how much light gets into the tank is to see if you can find some t8 sized bulbs and make a reflector for the fixture to bounce more light down into the tank. t12 bulbs are a larger diameter and would block more light after it reflects back down.

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if the open box is the end view of your fixture body and the O is your bulb if you put a surface on both sides of the fixture like the lines on either side and paint them white you will have more light bounced back into the tank. Angle those down a little or curve as in a parabola and you get even more light down into your tank.
 
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