I am setting up a 55 gallon aquarium and I added about 100 lbs of good substrate, I guess I have left round 45-48 actual water gallons left. The hood is divided in 2 pieces and came with a 15 watt light tube on each. There is no way I can get my 3-4 wpg using such small tubes so I decided to buy 4 60 watt Daylight Compact Fluorescent bulbs rated @ 800 lumens and 5000 K each. I get a total of 240 watts and that means about 5 wpg (at the beginning I calculated the wpg without the sand and it gave me 4.36 wpg but well). I was wondering if this is too much light. I plan to buy about 50 plants for the aquarium. The aquarium is rather taller than wider, the lights are positioned 18 inches from the bottom substrate and they were placed facing each other inside the hood that held the original tube. Any help is appreciated.
Right lightining for my 55 gallon set-up
- Thread starter antitruster50
- Start date
It might be a good idea to post in the planted section with this question for the best feedback.
It sounds good to me, although with an 18" depth it is difficult to get proper amounts of light to the bottom.
How deep is your substrate? I used sand, but don't recall how many pounds it was. I have a couple inches in the front, built up to about three or a bit more in the back.
I had 5wpg on my ten-gallon betta tank and the plants grew beautifully.
It sounds good to me, although with an 18" depth it is difficult to get proper amounts of light to the bottom.
How deep is your substrate? I used sand, but don't recall how many pounds it was. I have a couple inches in the front, built up to about three or a bit more in the back.
I had 5wpg on my ten-gallon betta tank and the plants grew beautifully.
I'm guessing you'd have to run around 3, two-liter bottles. I'm running 2 of those bottles on my 40 gal, and it doesnt even seem to be enough. From what i hear, eco-complete is a really good substrate. You're gonna need fertilizer, if you plan on adding brighter light. Basically if you add more light, you need to diffuse more CO2, and in turn, youll need to replenish the macro and micro nutrients that are being used by the plants as a result of accelerated growth.
For better growth, yes youll need the fertilizer. up to you though.
For better growth, yes youll need the fertilizer. up to you though.
Thanks for your info but back to my original question. I just want to make sure the 4 60 Watt BULBS are enough wattage for my 55 gallon set-up. I was reading about T5's and T12's and a bunch of stuff that doesn't make sense. I hope I did the right thing by switching the 2 15 Watt T5's for the 4 60 Watt Bulbs. I'm going crazy...