# question



## Anafranil (Mar 15, 2005)

I am keeping planted tanks for a while now but it has never crossed my mind that some people keep plants with 6wpg or more,the only lights I used are standard aquarium fluorecents up to 36w each.
some of you chat about using 90+w,but I don't know the equipment you use,I know it is hard to explain through a thread but I would like some hints so I keep on searching

Thanks


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## thaerin (Dec 12, 2004)

There's a few options for lighting, 3 being the most common.

Flourescent: Cheaper than the others, not as powerful. Standard light fixture you get when you buy a tank/hood combo from a LFS. Correct me if I'm wrong, but they only go up to something like 20-25 watts.

Compact Flourescent: A bit more expensive than flourescent, much more powerful. Good bang for the buck though.Lots of options for this one! AH Supply for the DIYer, or look at any good online store under lighting for CF. Careful when checking them out though, keep track of what pin style the bulbs are. There are 2, straight and square and they are NOT compatible. Think square though a round hole.

Metal Halide: For when you need a massive amount of light. Lowest wattage I've seen is 150 watt. Used for reef system more often than planted ones (I think, could be wrong). They run reaaaaaal hot (take your average incandescent light bulb, feel how hot it is. Now imagine a bulb with well over twice the wattage going through it and how hot it would be) and are reaaal expensive. But they can be useful, it depeds on your situation. If you've got a hude tank or need incredibly powerful lights, they might be the way to go.
Here is one link to check them out at. Just search for Metal Halides (aqualine bushcke is one)

As always, I rayer: to the gurus who know more than me.


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## Jason Baliban (Feb 21, 2005)

Generally, people use the wpg rule as a guideline. This guideline does fall short when you are talking about smaller tanks or really large ones. I think you will see 6wpg when the tanks get smaller the 20-30 gallons. Most people shoot for 2-3 wpg on medium size tanks. You need to strike some type of balance when choosing the amount of light. Too little and you are going to have some issues with growing certain plants. Too much and you will have to balance your CO2 and ferts. Luckily it really isnt as complicated as it sounds. There are plenty of people here who can get you where you want to go. Thaerin summarized the types for you. If you have more questions, just post them.....be sure to let us know what size tank you have and the goals you have.
Good Luck
jB


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## Praxx42 (Mar 4, 2005)

I'll kick in my two cents here, having used all three of the above described lights:

*Normal Flourescent or NOF:* Good for the price (I buy two 40W, 48" bulbs for $7 @ Home Despot), but not much penetrating power. Good for shallow tanks, anything over 18" deep, try another option. Bulbs are usually good for about 6 months.

*Compact Flourescent or CF:* About twice the price of NOF, but well worth it. I am in the process of coverting all my applicable tanks over to CF. Tremendous penetrating power and the bulbs are good for about 12 months.

*Metal Halide or MH:* Awesome lights, but with a couple of drawbacks. Extremely hot, two 400w MH lights are capable of heating a 10'x10' room 15-20 degrees during the day. Even better penetration than CFs, good for super deep tanks. Large variety of wattages and kelvin ratings, but bulbs are expensive (2-4x as much as CF bulbs). Bulbs are good for 9-12 months.


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## Anafranil (Mar 15, 2005)

I appresiate the trouble you 've been through writing such long posts,I got the idea and from where to start searching,thanks a lot


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## thaerin (Dec 12, 2004)

Happy to help =)

If you give us the size of your tank and what sort of plants/maintence you were thinking about we can give more specific answers as to what you might want to look for.

Higher light usually means more maintence. When you hit 6wpg + C02 you'll be going through a lot of fertilizer to keep up with the plant's intakes.

Personally, I'm running around 2.5 WPG (55 watt power compact on a 20 L), I can grow for the most part anything I want and it's not to high maintance. Maybe trim the entire tank every few weeks, except for the few speed demons like Hygrophilia. That sucker gets trimmed every week.


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