quick lighting opinion for freshwater plants

[dbates]

hey all.

Just started setting up a 55 gallon freshwater tank for my boss at the restaaurant i work at. I talked to him about getting live plants to help filtration and he said it was good, and we need new lights, what do you think about this fixture?

oddyssea 2x65 48"

i know its nothing great, but for freshwater plants it should get the job done?

also, does anyone know why oddyssea lights are so cheap? is the company going down or just really lousy?

 

[andycook]

I've always favored lots of light on my fw planted tanks. Your light should be fine for low to medium light loving plants. Stay at this level and you can avoid adding CO2 and other additives.

 

[Samala]

These lights are pretty cheaply made, and the bulbs seem to be inferior.. a friend of mine picked some up.. I was not impressed. But on a graduate student budget, it gets the job done I suppose.

Echoing Andy.. stay at 2-2.5 wpg and you can avoid CO2 in most cases. Do you have some experience with the freshwater plants to begin with? Keeping the tank nice for display purposes may take quite some work if you arent familiar with fw plants. (If you've had them before, great!) Some good websites: www.plantgeek.net and www.aquaticplantcentral.com. And of course, the 'bible'.. www.thekrib.com.

>Sarah

 

[UprightJoe]

Thanks for the links Sarah, I was looking at plantgeek.net 6-7 months before I started my first planted tank and I couldn't remember the name of the site to save my life.

dbates,

www.plantedtank.net and www.barrreport.com are very useful too.

 

[dbates]

if it comes with 50/50 and actinics, would i be able to use them at all? or would switching freshwater bulbs in be necessary?

 

[Samala]

Wow.. 50/50 and actinics? That's a lot of blue light. I'd switch the actinic bulb over to freshwater daylight range.. I like 6700K because its not too red. The 50/50 is your call.. plants still respond to the light, but the intensity of the wavelengths that they use will be a little diminished with that bulb. One thing I'd worry about is that the two bulbs are split in half along the fixture instead of running the full length. If you switch one and not the other one half of the tank may look different from the opposite side. Something to consider if you mix the bulbs.

You might look into the Coralife Aqualights if you are looking for something nice to go over the display tank.. they make nearly all the fixtures with a freshwater version that already comes with the planted tank bulbs (6700K..) I love them!

>Sarah