Thread: Lighting advice
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Old 04-05-2004, 11:36 PM
trilinearmipmap trilinearmipmap is offline
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First of all I suggest don't go metal halide it is overkill for this size of tank, you will run into algae and nutrient balance problems. IMHO metal halide for this size off tank would only be appropriate for very high light demanding plants and I wouldn't do it even then.

I would suggest a single 55 watt AH supply pc and DIY CO2. Although nominally less than 2 watts per gallon, with the AH supply reflector this should be more than enough.

Examples of lighting I have over plant tanks that work well:

Triple tube NO 3 x 30 watt bulbs over 33g (36") tank, no CO2
2 x 55 Watts pc plus one x 30 watt NO over 58g (36") tank, no CO2
4 x 55 Watts pc over 75g (48") tank, CO2 injection

As a rough idea, 3 normal output bulbs or one pc bulb over the length of your tank, without CO2, should be good.

After some experience with high-light CO2 injected tanks and low-light no CO2 tanks, I enjoy the lower-light approach more. The low-light tanks are more beautiful, less maintainence, and less stress.
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