Lighting Advice

[rjcatlin]

I have a 20 gallon with a 20 W electronic ballast fluorescent fixture and a 60 gallon with two 17 W regular ballast fluorescent fixture. I have read that anywhere between 1 and 5 W/gallon are sufficient. I have no live plants in either tank. The inhabitants of each tank are:

20 gallon: 1 cory catfish, 2 chinese algae eaters, and 2 fantail goldfish

60 gallon: 1 pleco, 1 clown loach, 1 betta, 2 parrot cichlids, 2 angelfish, and 3 bala sharks

Any suggestions?

 

[Devilishturtles]

In my opinion, you'll be fine with what you have. Lighting isn't as important when you have fish only. I'd put in whatever normal flourescent bulb you can.

 

[src]

If you add more light to your tank, you are just begging for an algae infestation. On an unplanted tank, use as little light as you can get by with - i.e. just enough so that you can see your fish in their full color.

 

[rjcatlin]

Thanks for the input guys. I'll probably just change out the bulbs to 10000 K ones. That's a pretty good all around bulb, right?

 

[smn723]

10000 k is still close to the daylight spectrum but adds a nice blue hue that you don't get with the 6700. I really like the looks of it and that would be fine for a fish only tank.