# Lighting Opinions and Recommendations



## SunnyJim (Apr 11, 2017)

Hi guys, I am planning on setting up a 150L (39.6 us gallons) long aquarium, I will be having platies as the fish and maybe some snails. The tank will be light to moderately planted and the plants will be Java Fern, Java Moss and Anubias species attached onto some bog/drift wood and aquarium safe rocks. The inner dimensions of the tank are 902mm (35.5") long, 454mm (17.8") high and 368.5mm (14.5") wide. So as the title says, what lights would yous recommend? Because I am really not sure on what to choose. I have read about PAR, PUR and some other aspects of lighting, such as kelvin and lumens, but still quite stumped. I also read that watts/gal is not good enough to use any more, how true is this?  Thanks in advance people.


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## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

Here is an explanation of light intensity measurements: http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/10-lighting/184368-lighting-aquarium-par-instead-watts.html The plants you are planning on using don't require more than low light, so if you look for lights that will give you about 25-35 PAR at the substrate level in the tank, you will be able to grow those plants, while having minimal issues with algae attacks.


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## SunnyJim (Apr 11, 2017)

hoppycalif said:


> Here is an explanation of light intensity measurements: http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/10-lighting/184368-lighting-aquarium-par-instead-watts.html The plants you are planning on using don't require more than low light, so if you look for lights that will give you about 25-35 PAR at the substrate level in the tank, you will be able to grow those plants, while having minimal issues with algae attacks.


Algae is one of the reasons why I am trying to find a light fixture that either just gives enough light for these low light plants, or even better if I can find a suitable one that has a dimmer. I also read that some low light plants don't do well in bright light. But maybe these will be fine?


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## DutchMuch (Apr 12, 2017)

fluval aquasky


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