# [Wet Thumb Forum]-Plant lighting for 55 gal. tank



## Sandra Shore (Aug 18, 2004)

I have a 55 gal. tank that is 18 inches in depth.I have seven plants and eight Goldfish. I have been told that I need stronger light due to diatoms and my sickly plants. Due to money situation I was told that this was the least expensive way to go without changing my canopy. I am now trying 2 Coralife 100% Super Daylight 6500K Full Specturm Lamps of 15 Watts. It has a low reading in red and blue. Are these suitable for the plants? Any suggestions for something else?

Nugget1


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## Sandra Shore (Aug 18, 2004)

I have a 55 gal. tank that is 18 inches in depth.I have seven plants and eight Goldfish. I have been told that I need stronger light due to diatoms and my sickly plants. Due to money situation I was told that this was the least expensive way to go without changing my canopy. I am now trying 2 Coralife 100% Super Daylight 6500K Full Specturm Lamps of 15 Watts. It has a low reading in red and blue. Are these suitable for the plants? Any suggestions for something else?

Nugget1


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## nino (Oct 2, 2004)

6500K bulbs are fine to grow plants. But 15watts bulb is only 18" long. Your tank is 48" long right? 

The cheapest and effective alternative to add a lot of light is to get double bulbs shoplight fixture from a harware store. Then you can just switch the bulbs to 6500K daylight bulbs those offered in hardware store. You don't have to buy aquarium brands bulbs. If you do this, you'll have 80 watts of light on your tank.


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## Sandra Shore (Aug 18, 2004)

What I neglected to say was that I have two 24 inch canopies so therefore I need two separate bulbs. The higher wattage of lights do not come in 18 inch lengths.

Nugget1


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## Rex Grigg (Jan 22, 2004)

The simple fact is there is no "cheap" way to increase your light. If you want to stick with the existing canopies then you need to go to www.ahsupply.com and get some 55 watt kits. They will fit in there and give you a basic low light tank.

"Magic" plant bulbs don't help a bit if they don't deliver the watts.


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## DataGuru (Mar 11, 2005)

First, I just have to say... eight goldies in a 55 gallon tank is WAY overstocked. I only have 4 in my 55 and have a hard time keeping nitrAtes at acceptible levels.

You should be shooting for 2-3 watts per gallon to get good plant growth. 6500K is fine, as 5000K or one the the wide spectrum grow lights (a lot less bright to the eye and slighly less purple looking than the regular grow lights).

I've increased the lighting several ways without spending hundreds on speciality lighting.

Put the tank by a south window is the cheapest way to increase lighting. Diane Walstad uses the standard stock lighting in her natural planted tanks combined with putting them by windows to take advantage of sunlight. I have both my 20 gallon tanks by south windows. Other than having a bit more trouble with hair algae, the plants look very happy (anacharis, hornwort, camboba, java fern, najas grass, and chain swords).

For my 55, I bought a shop light and built a hood for it and used one 5000K and 1 wide-spectrum grow light bulb. That got me 60 watts... still not enuf. So I drilled holes on each end and added 75 watt, 5000K compact fluorescent screw in bulbs to it. Those come in various wattages, tho I found it challenging to find them in the correct color temp. Also had to add a plexiglass cover for the tank, tho I wish I'd gone with glass.

I'd also converted one of the standard hoods to hold 2 screw in compact fluorescent bulbs. Just need a keyhole saw of the right size, a rubber grommit (got it at Ace), a fixture for the screw in bulb (also from Ace) and some aquarium sealant.

Here's some pics on the hood I built for the 55. The tank was newly set up back then, so excuse the lameness. The goldie geeks wanted me to go bare bottom, and I had just added an UGF to half the tank to get more bio bugs in place.
front 









Top









bottom









plexiglass cover









There's a more recent pic of the tank on the main page below.

Betty


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