30 gallon tank Lighting requirements

[mdavis60]

I have a 30 gallon tank 36X12X16 that I am going to turn into a planted tank. I tried this before with little sucess probably due to lighting.
I have read alot about lighting but it is alll very confusing. Do I go with a retro kit or can I just use flouresent tubes. I am going for low tech to start. My main tank is African Cichlids. What wattage and how many tubes?

 

[Mrs.h2012]

I have a 30 gallon tank 36X12X16 that I am going to turn into a planted tank. I tried this before with little sucess probably due to lighting.
I have read alot about lighting but it is alll very confusing. Do I go with a retro kit or can I just use flouresent tubes. I am going for low tech to start. My main tank is African Cichlids. What wattage and how many tubes?

Does your tank have a hood or any kind of top to it? My 55g is open top, I'm using clip on lamps and cfl's and I have plants (lowlight) that are growing just fine. If your interested in going this route I'll flash explain more if you want.

 

[mdavis60]

Yes I have a plastic type plate and a slot a two foot fixture fits in. I plan on probably getting rid of that and just putting glass across it. My main question is type of bulbs and wattage . Thanks

 

[Mrs.h2012]

Yes I have a plastic type plate and a slot a two foot fixture fits in. I plan on probably getting rid of that and just putting glass across it. My main question is type of bulbs and wattage . Thanks

Ill go ahead and tell you my setup as far as lights go, I think it would work perfectly fine for you since you plan on putting glass across the top (as long as you Plan on doing low light plants). All I've done is I've bought clip on lamps from Walmart and daylight 6500k 13w cfl's. I currently have two on my 55g which is going to be fully planted, I'm getting plants little by little. My plants have grown just fine with these lights. But I think the most you would need would be two lamps since you have a 30. I'll include links to the lamps and bulbs. I've spent about 25$ so far. Each lamp is $8 a piece and my bulbs were a 3 pack for $7. Here are the links...

http://mobile.walmart.com/m/phoenix...-002-06-Mainstays-Clip-On-Lamp-Brown/21881808

http://mobile.walmart.com/m/phoenix...Energy-Smart-CFL-13W-T2-Daylight-3pk/21695142

 

[Mrs.h2012]

I forgot the wattage, my apologies! The bulbs I sent you a link to are energy saver type bulbs, so they only use 13w but actually put out 60w. If you get two you would have a total of 120w. When it comes to wattage, it really all depends on why plants you want to keep; low light, medium-high light. I would research each plant you want and see how many watts per gallon it needs. All you do to figure out how many watts per gallon you have is simple division... Just divide the total amount of watts your bulb/bulbs are by your tank size (in your case 30). So in your case, if you were to get just one of the 13w cfl's you would have 2 watts per gallon (60 (total watts)/30 (your tank size)= 2 watts per gallon). If you happen to need more than one lamp, I would look for a lower wattage bulb.