Freshwater Plant Lighting help!

[rort]

I am planning on turning my 55g Long tank sitting in my garage into a plant Freshwater.

What light would you recommend for it?

I was looking at a:

http://www.hellolights.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=327

but wanted to get some feed back as I have never tried to grow anything with Freshwater!

 

[spinnerbayt]

That light would work fine but with that amount of light you'll want to run Co2. If you've never had a planted tank before its a whole different beast then SW. Do some research and figure out if you want a high tech (high light, Co2 injection, and ferts) or a low tech tank. (not as much light, no C02 and no ferts) Lower light tank are usually more manageable. Do your homework just like with your reef.

 

[Skeptic_07]

There are a bunch of forums out there that are devoted to this subject. theplantedtank.net is a good one. That light will do fine for cryptos, swords, java fern and things of that nature but if you want carpet plants like glossostigma you'll need a stronger light or they'll grow upwards. Tek lights are very popular for planted tanks but you'll want all 6500k lamps. IMO CO2 is always necessary in some amount or you'll just end up with a bunch of plants covered in algae. Just like reeftanks, it all depends on what you want to keep.

 

[ari5736]

I have that light on my planted tank and it works well, and ime the light could go with or wo/co2.

 

[MSX-Jeff]

I'm not so sure on the 6500k lamp idea. You get the most useable light out of them, but the look pretty yellow...and if you plan on running an Amazon tank with driftwood, it will look VERY yellow with the tannin's in the water AND the 6500K bulbs. I have a 385g Amazon tank...It is lit by 2 x 250w XM 10K, and 4 x 39w T5 Geissman Aquablue+. The tank has several large pieces of driftwood in it. Even with the 10-12K lighting, the tank looks pretty yellow, but still pleasant. I would hate the look of the tank if I had gone with Iwasaki 6500K MH's instead of the 10K's. Just something to think about

Like others have said, you can do it with or w'out CO2...If you plan on stocking heavily with fish, they can provide enough CO2 and nutrients to keep the plants growing well enough. But if you want that thick, lush, full of plants look you'll want to look into a small CO2 system.