# New to aquarium lighting 55gallon



## Neya (Nov 19, 2009)

I have a 55gallon acrylic aquarium. 2 hoods from walmart kit
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=3363264

I've never previously cared about plants as I had bare bottom with discus. Now I'm housing crystal red shrimp. I'm not looking for high tech/CO2 and don't care about algea blooms too much. 
But the lighting isn't great, at 30w total(and thyre old bulbs btw, I think that makes a difference?)
nothing grows. My java moss doesn't expand. My laceleaf java fern has gone from 1 plantlet to many over the years but with a max height of 2". The only thing that grows well is a Berta bulb Lilly that's red. I'm happy with low tech plants, but i do want them to grow lots of cover for my shrimp.

Are there any different bulbs or ideas I can use to help this? Like I said I don't know much about lighting so I'm sorry if this question seems silly!!

Tap ph 7.8 tank ph 6.4(kh is 0.2-0.8)
temp 74


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## apc789 (Jan 7, 2010)

Does this hood use incandescant bulbs or flourescent bulbs?


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## maestrale (Dec 17, 2009)

When I bought my 46G I replaced the lights that came with the tank with high fluorescent. Plants are growing great.


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## endgin33 (Jun 10, 2008)

Neya,
IMO, you should look into upgrading your lightning if you want to get serious about plants, but that may be just the beginning. The problem is that getting serious about lighting, you may in turn have to get serious about substrate, fertilization, co2 etc. If I where setting up a moderate system (I.E. not going to go with CO2 injection, daily ferts etc) I would want at over 1 watt per gallon minimum, but probably not more than 2 watts per gallon as this seems to be the threshold for me where everything becomes "serious" regarding plant nutrition. For example, the 48" Nova Extreme t-5 fixture (108 watts) is pretty reasonably priced and would give you enough light to do a pretty good variety of plants. 

I would recommend looking at the planted experience "in total" versus just upgrading lights. Plants need certain things to really take off. CO2, macro's (nitrogen, phosphate, potassium) micro's (trace elements), a substrate that allows for good biological activity and is "rootable", lightning that is in the spectrum the plants can utilize, etc., are all important to planted success. How you get these things working for you varies alot. There are a lot of planted tanks styles-El natural tanks, high tech tanks, ADA styles, mineralized substrates, etc. The list of options is quite long and frankly can be quite dependant on what kinda of commitment level you want to go with both time (maintenance styles) and financially (the ADA substrate I just used in rescaping one of my tanks cost me $150! However, plants grow like weeds in this stuff... And that is just the "dirt" part of the game!) The one thing that I know for sure is that if you do the research you will find a set up style that will work for you. This site has a lot of useful information and you should explore lots of options- knowledge is power.


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## Neya (Nov 19, 2009)

The lights are flourescent, all glass 15w 24" ballast(18" bulbs) ballasts say 18w (maximum??)
so I'm guessing upgrading would be absolutely neccessary.

I love high tech tanks, and may play around with high lights and diy co2 ferts etc on my mini tank for fun/expirimenting. 
But the tank I'm inquiring first priority is the crystal red shrimp. Since my kh is already dead low and the parameters are close to perfection for them I'd rather not get into dosing/co2 etc with it. 
Overall goals are simply just keep shrimp healthy(first) and wanting to give them lots of low light plant cover. Anything (low light) I purchase thrives but doesn't really grow - especially when rooted since the lower water doesn't receive much light at all. Even my java moss only sends out a couple new strings here and there. 

I'm not using Ada aquasoils personallyfor the shrimp as my tap water is amazingly soft and kh is under 1 so the ph drops to the range I want. I have considered using it but since most expiriences I've read with it are from higher ph I have no idea how it would affect my water.


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## Muirner (Jan 9, 2007)

I made a DIY hood that grows most plants really well. Look at the link in my sig... If you lived closer to me (idk where u live) i'd sell ya it as i'm no longer using it.


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