Which light for my planted tank?

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needmorecowbell

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I am looking for a t5ho fixture for a planted tank. I recently switched from having a high tech reef, to planted again. I wanted to keep it pretty simple and hopefully cheaper. Ive heard that 2 bulb t5's are what i should be looking at, is this true? Im not sure if id like to dose with co2, but if its easy, id be up for it. The dimmable leds i have right now would be way to powerful for the tank i believe, as they were burning some of the corals when i had them. Any info would be great, Im still trying to remember all the info i knew about planted, Its taking me a while lol :) Thanks!
 
2 t5ho bulbs will give you high light in anything under a 55g tank which will give you a medium light level. It's possible that the dimmable leds could work if you hung them a little higher above the tank and dimmed them more.
 
2 t5ho bulbs will give you high light in anything under a 55g tank which will give you a medium light level. It's possible that the dimmable leds could work if you hung them a little higher above the tank and dimmed them more.

Welp, i purchased a light from fishneedit, 2x 39watts. One is actinic, other is 10k white I believe. I bought from them before, they are a great company. Even better news, it was a store clearance half off. 50$ :D

The LEDs would be way too much, I'm sure of it. I had them on the same tank with sps at 10 and 15% and it was still too bright for some things. I'd be worried what it would do to a plant.. And thanks for all the help, I appreciate it :)
 
What size tank? I have to agree your LEDs would likely be overkill. Actinic lights are not really plant suitable (great for algae though!) and 10k is a bit much. 5-7k is better range for plants.
 
What size tank? I have to agree your LEDs would likely be overkill. Actinic lights are not really plant suitable (great for algae though!) and 10k is a bit much. 5-7k is better range for plants.

30 gallon. And ahh okay, what should my bulb combo be? And I don't think I could get any lower of a temperature at the site, I'll be looking at somewhere else for those geisemman bulbs, and keep stock lighting for a little bit.
 
30 gallon. And ahh okay, what should my bulb combo be? And I don't think I could get any lower of a temperature at the site, I'll be looking at somewhere else for those geisemman bulbs, and keep stock lighting for a little bit.

I think fishneedit has 6500k bulbs. 10000k works if you need it to but most use a lower color temperature. If you are looking around for new bulbs, the giesmann are pretty quality. GE starcoat bulbs are also quality and about half the price of giesmanns. The cheapest option at the moment is probably the fishneedit ones, with the 50% off sale. They are also very good bulbs.
 
I think fishneedit has 6500k bulbs. 10000k works if you need it to but most use a lower color temperature. If you are looking around for new bulbs, the giesmann are pretty quality. GE starcoat bulbs are also quality and about half the price of giesmanns. The cheapest option at the moment is probably the fishneedit ones, with the 50% off sale. They are also very good bulbs.

They didn't have the option with the fixture I bought unfortunately :/ and thanks, cheaper with the same quality is always great. So, If actinics aren't good.. What bulbs should I get for growth but that will still be visually appealing to me?
 
They didn't have the option with the fixture I bought unfortunately :/ and thanks, cheaper with the same quality is always great. So, If actinics aren't good.. What bulbs should I get for growth but that will still be visually appealing to me?

With decent lighting you would probably want to add CO2 to help deal with algae (I think the CO2 promotes plant growth that competes with algae...idk). DIY CO2 is pretty simple: plastic juice bottle with a 3/8" hole in the lid, silicon airline, and a diffuser. And a new batch of yeast every 1-2 weeks.
 
I actually bought a 2 bulb fixture from fishneedit, also. It only had the 10,000k lightbulb option, so I used those, and my plants are doing just fine with them. I also have a different 2 bulb fixture from them, with the 6700k bulbs, and it looks more natural, but IMO they don't seem to have a difference in plant growth.
 
I actually bought a 2 bulb fixture from fishneedit, also. It only had the 10,000k lightbulb option, so I used those, and my plants are doing just fine with them. I also have a different 2 bulb fixture from them, with the 6700k bulbs, and it looks more natural, but IMO they don't seem to have a difference in plant growth.

Ah, great to see someone else with them. By the way, as it was said earlier... 50% off over there, if youre looking for light, go there! I think ill buy different bulbs at some point soon, i just dont want my tank to look yellow, which i dread. I think im going to dose with flourish instead of using co2 if that works, im not sure. like i said, im still trying to learn what ive forgotten from 2 years ago lol.
 
Ah, great to see someone else with them. By the way, as it was said earlier... 50% off over there, if youre looking for light, go there! I think ill buy different bulbs at some point soon, i just dont want my tank to look yellow, which i dread. I think im going to dose with flourish instead of using co2 if that works, im not sure. like i said, im still trying to learn what ive forgotten from 2 years ago lol.

If you really don't like yellow, you could get another 10000k bulb. You could maybe get a 6500k bulb instead of 10000k - I personally don't think 6500k is too yellow, but I'm not used to the usual 10000k+ involved in saltwater.

As for fertilizers, regular flourish won't replace co2. Flourish I believe contains the NPK (Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium) and trace elements, which should satisfy the plants' fertilizer needs - but co2 isn't really considered a fertilizer. Flourish excel, however, is a liquid carbon supplement that could work in place of co2 in tanks around the medium light level. For cheaper excel, get a gallon of metricide 14 off of ebay - it's much cheaper than excel but contains the same active ingredient, glutaraldehyde. It also is more concentrated than excel. A 500 mL bottle of excel is generally $8-10 while one gallon of metricide 14 is as low as $21.
 
If you really don't like yellow, you could get another 10000k bulb. You could maybe get a 6500k bulb instead of 10000k - I personally don't think 6500k is too yellow, but I'm not used to the usual 10000k+ involved in saltwater.

As for fertilizers, regular flourish won't replace co2. Flourish I believe contains the NPK (Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium) and trace elements, which should satisfy the plants' fertilizer needs - but co2 isn't really considered a fertilizer. Flourish excel, however, is a liquid carbon supplement that could work in place of co2 in tanks around the medium light level. For cheaper excel, get a gallon of metricide 14 off of ebay - it's much cheaper than excel but contains the same active ingredient, glutaraldehyde. It also is more concentrated than excel. A 500 mL bottle of excel is generally $8-10 while one gallon of metricide 14 is as low as $21.

Yeah, I'm used to 20k whites.. It'll be a transition. I'll bought the ge starcoat 6500k today. Just one bulb, I'll use the fishneedit bulb for the other.

And yeah, I should've explained myself better, I was thinking flourish excel and the flourish for micro supplements. Would that all work?
 
Yeah, I'm used to 20k whites.. It'll be a transition. I'll bought the ge starcoat 6500k today. Just one bulb, I'll use the fishneedit bulb for the other.

And yeah, I should've explained myself better, I was thinking flourish excel and the flourish for micro supplements. Would that all work?

Yeah, just get the flourish and a liquid carbon such as flourish excel or metricide 14. Then you should be set. If you want to look into it, dry ferts are much more economical - when you buy liquid ferts, you are mainly just paying for water. There are lots of NPK+Trace combo packs that would last you forever and save you money in the long run.
 
Yeah, just get the flourish and a liquid carbon such as flourish excel or metricide 14. Then you should be set. If you want to look into it, dry ferts are much more economical - when you buy liquid ferts, you are mainly just paying for water. There are lots of NPK+Trace combo packs that would last you forever and save you money in the long run.

Oh, well in always in the mood to save money! I'll start researching them, thanks.
 
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