15 g planted lighting

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reecers

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Jun 22, 2008
Messages
16
Location
with my caring parents at the moment Oklahoma city
hi i have just recently begun my research on lighting as of a few days ago and im not having much luck, i have an entertainment center in my room which im replacing the TV with a 15 g fish tank, now i want to achieve 3 wpg in light, the single 15 watt is not going to cut it, nor are a double 15 watt, im looking for some sort of double or maybe a triple that will hold 3 flourescents, i wanted to have two 6500k's and a 10000k to balance the light, i went to lowes called home depot and have been to a few hardware sites and fish tank lighting places, no luck, so it would be awesome if a fellow aquarist could help me


this is what i currently have setup to get the tank to fishless cycle



in short my problem is i need 45 watts where i have 35 inches to put a lighting fixture, and yet ive had no luck, also its going to be hanging down and not on the tank itself
 
What is the length of the tank?

What is your budget?

Would you consider a 20" CF fixture instead of the T-8's?
 
well there isnt really to much of a budget, cuz i dont think i can get overly expensive with a 15 gallon tank, and yea i consider anything, its 19.5 inches so a 20 inch CF fixture would be perfect, i just havent found any, i kno it sounds dumb that i havent found any but yea... i just need to make sure i have the right color lighting and its 19.5 inches long by 9.5 inches width
 
50/50 is for looks mostly from what I gather. A regular 5,000k to 10,000k bulb is preferred, AKA full spectrum
 
A 50/50 bulb is half actinic and half 10,000K (kelvin rating). They are normally used in saltwater since plants don't use the actinic lighting. Some people do use them over planted tank to cut down on the watts.

You would want to replace that with a bulb between about 6000 and 10,000 kelvin, which is the part of the spectrum that plants use. Plants use some of the spectrum below 6000, but they tend to look very red and aren't pleasing to look at. 6700K has a yellow-green tint, 7800K is blueish green and 10,000K is more white looking.
 
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