# 55 gallon lighting question



## erk419 (Aug 20, 2017)

Hello a little background I have a 55 gallon mixed community tank with several plants Java fern, java moss, amazon swords, some sort of anubias, and then a few plants that I don't know what they are. My light is a cheap 48 inch LED i got off ebay. Last couple weeks been dosing API CO2 booster.

What I would like to do is to be able to grow pretty much anything I wanted, I would like to use pressurized CO2 but not right away need to get a little bit at a time. I thought I would start off by getting a good light. Any suggestions on a light that will be able to grow about anything and would eventually work well with co2 and ferts. One I was looking at was this https://www.amazon.com/Finnex-Plant...503273861&sr=8-3&keywords=Finnex+Planted+Plus

Not sure it this would fit what Im looking for or not. Ideas?


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## Michael (Jul 20, 2010)

Welcome to APC!

That light should be fine for what you want.


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## erk419 (Aug 20, 2017)

Thanks you for your welcoming and your response. Do you think the 24/7 feature on here would be beneficial or would it be something I would never use. If thats the case is there another one I would be better off going with.


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## Michael (Jul 20, 2010)

Most people I know who have the 24/7 feature play with it for a few weeks, then just use the timer.


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## erk419 (Aug 20, 2017)

Thanks I noticed they also have this https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MXOGLE...N-paANKZ46uaDU2JtAg&slotNum=3&tag=fishlore-20

Looks to be an updated model and suppose to have true red lights think it would be worth the extra money over the other one?


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## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

erk419 said:


> Thanks I noticed they also have this https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MXOGLE...N-paANKZ46uaDU2JtAg&slotNum=3&tag=fishlore-20
> 
> Looks to be an updated model and suppose to have true red lights think it would be worth the extra money over the other one?


This one has the 660 nm LEDs, and should be significantly better than the other one. If your tank is a standard 55 gallon tank, 48 inches long, 21 inches tall, it should give you about 40 PAR maximum light intensity. That is barely medium light, but you can grow a lot of different plants with that much light. If you want to experiment with high light you will want a brighter light with the ability to dim it if you need to.


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## erk419 (Aug 20, 2017)

Thank you for your reply yes mine is a standard 55 do you have any suggestions for a brighter light that I would be able to dim if I wanted. Also would you suggest LED or T5 or something else.


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## Michael (Jul 20, 2010)

Listen to Hoppy--he knows more about lighting than I do!


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## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

You can always use two of the Planted Plus lights, which would give you about 80 PAR maximum, with very good control over the intensity. Or, you could look for a used "Build My LED" light, but they no longer seem to be selling new ones. There are several good, bright LED lights available, but I don't have PAR data for them. I haven't been interested in high light for several years, so I haven't paid much attention to what is available in LED lighting for that much light.

T5HO lighting will certainly give you high light, but without the advantages that LED lighting has. It would take more than 2 T5HO bulbs, with good reflectors to get into the high light category.


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## erk419 (Aug 20, 2017)

Thanks


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## supperfish (Oct 10, 2016)

The upgraded version (Finnex planted 24/7+ SE) of the Finnex planted 24/7+ is better because it adds some 660 nm lighting. I use a 48 inch LED aquarium light for my 55 gallon planted tank, but it doesn't offer 660nm lighting.


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## cicrush13 (Jan 23, 2018)

Hey guys, I'm in the same boat only I have a 60 gallon high (same foot print, just 24" H). 
I currently have a 2 bulb T5HO on the tank and pressurized CO2.
My concern is 2 things.
1. Is 1 of the Finnex 24/7 good enough to penetrate for 24"? (well let's say 20" with the amount of substrate I have) 
2. I like to keep cardinal tetras in this tank and I'm afraid of using 2 lights on it as it may be "too bright" for them. But I do want to get some stems of rotala and ludwigia in the tank for some additional color.

Open to suggestions.

Thanks!


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## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

A 48 inch long Finnex Planted Plus 24/7 will give you 40-50 PAR at the substrate on that tank. That is low medium light, and it is enough to work very well with both rotala and ludwigia (depending on which particular sub species). That is a very good light level to start out with.

Welcome to APC!


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## cicrush13 (Jan 23, 2018)

Thanks for the welcome.
I'm not new to plants, but I am new to the LED side of things.
I used to run 4x T5HO 54w on this tank and had good success, but one of the lights crapped out on me and now I'm seeing what my options are for LED.


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## TropTrea (Jan 10, 2014)

In the past I had built several LED fixtures that surpassed most equally priced commercial fixtures. Most simply do not put out enough light for anything other than low end of moderate lightning plants. 

In the last year they have upped the availability of good DIY LED's. With DIY you can get the latest developments while on a commercial fixture you won't see the latest advances in years to come. 

Looking at a 55 gallon tank with the newest LED's you can get medium lighting at about 30 watts total and Extreme lighting at about 75 watts. But one caution is if you get the newest LED's you will want to go with fewer LED's and can end up with unwanted shadows.

A reasonable approach would be running 16- Cree XT-E LED's that can be run at up to 5 Watts each. Using a pair of adjustable current drivers turned all the way up you would have about 80 watts and 9,600 Lums or turned down to a minimum of about 16 Watts with 2,400 Lums.

From my experimenting I had found the best results was with a combination of 6,500K and 4,000K LED's. Others have gone with the 6,500K and Red's however I did not the reddish tint in the tank from that combo.


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## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/.../136594-smd-led-tape-based-light-fixture.html This light is working very well, the best of any light I have used. But, to get high light with this type of LEDs is difficult, at best.


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## asad_200113 (Aug 24, 2017)

If you are on a budget I can highly recommend the Beamswork DA Fspec Leds which are cheap but a good value. If you aren’t the new Aqua Illumination Leds look promising.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## TropTrea (Jan 10, 2014)

If you want to make a comparison. I had built LED fixtures for my Reef tank and ended up selling them several times after people saw them. I had an 8 bulbT5HO fixture which pushed out 160 PAR at the Substrate of a 120 gallon tank, The LED's I had built for it used 36 3 Watt LED lights for a total of 108 watts used compared to the T5HO using 432 Watts. I never got a PAR meeter on that set up but the tank was visibly brighter and the corals loved it more.

Presently I have a pair of 30 gallon breeder tanks running 12 watts of LED's on them java ferns I need to thin out monthly. 

I had seen some poor and some good commercial LED fixtures. And I will say for the price of them anyone could build three fixtures that would be far more superior if they dedicated 10 hours to the project.


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