what type of lighting do you use for your planted tanks?

I use a Current USA setup with moonlighting.

 

What type of white bulb is it ? Just a standard VHO one ? If you look at the graphs on the bulb packaging it should show wavelengths in different colors. Plants will grow best with wavelengths in (if I remember correctly) red and blue (Not actinic).

 

actinic lighting is pure blue spectrum....
if your white bulb is 10,000k then you will get a nice crisp lighting
if it's more than that then you'll see more blue...lower than 10,000k's
will give you a more yellow look.

 

plants go for what is knows as watts per gallon...depending on the plants and how dense and what not a good rule of thumb is 3-5 watts per gallon.
So if you have a planted 30 gal tank then you need to look at around 90 to 150 watts of light for your plants.
now asfar as the spectrum of light the Blue length is kind of useless and you should look for a full spectrum or one just for plants.
Now all of the above is based on fresh water now for thgose that are salties i can not remember the watts per gallon for its been about 10 years since i have had a salt tank but i do remember that the Blue hue is needed by most corals and clams.

 

I currently have a 90 gallon that is lighted with the 48" Coralife Freshwater Aqualight-(4X65Watt). It features Four 65 watt 6700K compact fluorescent lamps, Easily removable acrylic lens cover, Highly polished reflector, and has One on/off switch.

 

lighting

lighting
just wondering what lighting liek what they mean by "t5" and all that stuff and feel free to add more then what i asked

 

Re: lighting

Size (width) and type of bulb.

**T-12's are REALLY thick fairly high power bulbs @ 40 watts (4 foot bulbs)
**T-8's are thinner and more energy efficient they run at 32 watts and are a bit brighter though than t-12's
**T-5's are really high output for their size. They are about as wide as my pinkey and have TONS of overpowering capabilities (if you get a good ballast) Due to the small width you can fit 4 bulbs in the same area you can fit 1 T12 bulb allowing you to get more power that way too

 

Re: lighting

any types of good plant grow lights?

 

Re: lighting

Never had plants easy to upkeep

 

Re: lighting

i got like 4 all glass aquarium bulbs on mu 110 gl lighting is this good engough for plants

 

Re: lighting

Just the standard aquarium bulbs that are included with the lighting fixtures ?

 

Re: lighting

21 walts 12000k

 

Re: lighting

?

 

Re: lighting

what you need is to figure out how many watts per gallon " WPG" your lights are capabale of.

with t5's you can use a much lower WPG for plants. I have read some are succesful as low as .6 wpg and yielding slow growth, but growth just the same.

I am figuring on about 1.5 WPG with T8's which should be enough light for low to medium light requirement plants and no excessive growth.

 

HELP!Question on Best Lighting for Planted Aquarium (No Co2)

HELP!Question on Best Lighting for Planted Aquarium (No Co2)
OKay, as most of you know I have the following setup and would like some advice:
1)90 gallon all glass aquarium with glass canopies
2)Eco-Complete Substrate with Nutrafin Plant Spikes
3)Two 300watt Rena Smart Heaters (I think there 300w)
4)One RenaFilstar XP4 (top to bottom: Floss, Rena Stars & Ceramic Rings sitting on top of Rena MicroFiltration+ Pad, two Rena 20ppm Foam Pads, and at the very bottom two Rena 30ppm Foam Pads)
5)Two Emperor 400's running manufactures cartridges, Eheim (brown balls that look like cocoa puffs?), and purigen pouches sitting in the far back
6)One Coralife 12x36W Turbo Twist UV Sterilizer (runs 24 hours)
7)Coralife Freshwater Aqualight running Four 65watt 6,700K Bulbs with 6 Lunar Linking lights mounted to it. (260watts ran at almost 12 hours a day on a set timer, the remainder of the time the Lunar Lights are ran)
8)Various community fish & Plants

The issue lies within #7...I'm looking to go with a lower wattage light for my setup since I don't want to continue going the Co2 route via by adding chemicals and other plant additives (Seachem Flourish, Seachem Flourish Excel, Seachem Flourish Iron, etc).
I still would like to continue having live plants, but moreso less on the care list due to health problems.

My LFS suggested changing the light fixture to something in the range of 90-135watts per gallon... which he stated would be considered a Low-Med Low Light Range. He said most plants found in the fish stores would grow fine with that type of lighting and would no longer need the chemical additives since the fish waste & Eco-Complete would more than likely give them what they need to grow.

IF this is true, then I have come across the following light fixtures within the 90-135 watt range that are availble in 48" and would like to know if one is better than the other as far as lighting goes since I like a very well lit aquarium?
1)130W Coralife Freshwater Aqualight $109.99 <This is the same as my fixture ..minus two bulbs of course; with this one I could use my leftover bulbs from my existing stock>
2)130W Current USA Satellite w/ 2 Lunar Lights $149.99
3)130W Glo T5 HO $131.99 (doesn't include bulbs; 18,000K $17.58 Ea or 6,700K $15.89 Ea)
4)110W All Glass High Output Strip Light $119.99
5)108W Nova Extreme x2 T5HO $109.99
Recommendations & Suggestions...all definately Welcome!