# Lighting a 46 gallon bowfront



## travdawg (Mar 3, 2005)

My kid wants me to set up a 46 gallon I have stowed away in the garage. It will be a dirted tank, capped with black sand, and my desire is to grow low to medium plants. I want it to be low maintenance for sure. (she wants a betta sorority tank, with plants)

I have done dirt tanks before, but with LED lighting, I am uncertain of what to choose. I figure I will have ~3" of topsoil & cap... The bowfront (I believe) is 20" high. I wasnt sure if I could get away with regular cheapo tube lights, or if I should look into something else. 

I welcome, and very much appreciate any input from the community!


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## mudboots (Jun 24, 2009)

For low to medium intensity I like the "old" T5-HO fixtures. I bought some from FishNeedIt.com many years ago and they are still running just fine, and the plants are happy. I change the bulbs out once every 2 or 2.5 years. I grow various Anubias and Cryptocoryne and similar low-medium light species and do not add CO2. I don't know how much lighting to recommend; it would seem like a 3' fixture like that would be plenty, but if you have certain plant species in mind you'd want a much, much better answer than this. But I don't have a clue about LED lighting or how much PAR value (or whatever the latest talk is about) you need for any certain plant species.


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## mudboots (Jun 24, 2009)

Forgot to note that my T5 fixture is over a 36 bow front that is 21" tall with 2" of substrate, so about the same distance to the substrate as yours.


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## Michael (Jul 20, 2010)

T5 HO would definitely work. If you want to buy LED, the Finnex Planted Plus gives me medium light on a 75 gallon that is 22" tall. By "medium", I mean 30-40 PAR at the substrate.


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## travdawg (Mar 3, 2005)

Thanks all!!!


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## TropTrea (Jan 10, 2014)

with LED's that are properly balanced for spectrum is all you would need is about 20 watts of quality LED lighting for low a low light tank like you suggested. I think the planted plus may actually be n the edge of to powerful. 

Personaly I'd go DIY with 4 neutral white and 5 cool white CREE LED's and a 700ma driver which would give you about 18 watts but would be brighter than a pair of 39 watt HO-T-5's.


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