# Lighting for Discus and Plants



## Heavy G (Sep 20, 2006)

Hello Everyone 

I have a 75 gallon acrylic tank that I am buying the supply's I'll need to take it from a lightly planted community tank to a heavily planted Discus/Amazon community tank, as soon as I get the carpet replaced with wood flooring. I have a pressurized CO2 system that is up and running. Eco complete substrate that is still in the bags. Driftwood that has been aged and is in use. A Magnum 350 Power filter using charcoal and fiber and a Marineland 350 Bio-Wheel (not in use yet). And a 300 watt heater. The last thing I need is good lighting. My tank is 60" long and 17" high. I was thinking that I could put in a 36" fixture and put it more to one side. Will this work or will it cause problems? I would like to be able to control the lights to get the dawn and dusk effects and bring out the great colors of the fish and the plants. One of the biggest things that I'm confused about is the different light values ie. 6500K, 450nm and 91CRI, not sure if the last one is right. Can you people help an old man out.:help:


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## bristles (Mar 7, 2006)

If it were me I would run lights end to end (so plants would fill in evenly) I would also have two rows so that you could use timers to slowly phase in the light in the beginning of the photo period and slowly phase out at the end of photo period (I use cheap $5 timers from Menard's or Home Depot) So like 4 30 inch strips would be good, you would then be able to use different spectrum's of bulbs in the various fixtures, say 6500K or 6700K & full spectrum or daylight bulbs.


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