Help me pick out a light (plants & cichlids)

[Evil_Jon]

Hey guys.

I have a 120g tank that I've only ever kept snapping turtles, a couple plecos & a few feeder fish in. But now I want to convert it to a cichlid tank with some plants.

I think I've figured out all my other equipment needs but I'm stuck on lighting. I'm looking at the 48" AquaticLife T5 HO Dual Lamp light. It rates at 108watts. Will this be enough wattage for plants? I read that I need at least 2w per gallon even for low light plants but that seems high.

These are $135 each, and honestly 2 of them is pushing my budget. (ok so my budget was blown 100s of dollars ago )

Any other brands or suggestions are also welcome.


And while I'm here, are my pleco's going to destroy the plants anyways?

Thanks -
Jon

 

[mfdrookie516]

What kind of cichlids? Keeping plants with the majority of african cichlids (mainly malawi) is usually really hard to do. They like to eat them... been there, done that.

As far as lighting, you don't need that much. I have 200 watts of T5HO on my 125 and I'm growing high light plants with ease. A simple 4x54w T5HO will give you plenty of light IMO, if not bordering the higher light side of things.

 

[Evil_Jon]

Hrrrmmm... I was planning on malawi cichlids. I guess I'll stick with the ugly plastic plants.


Thanks for your help.

 

[HUKIT]

With a 120g Malawi peacocks are a great choice for amazing color and general lower aggression levels than mbuna and your in luck since they don't eat plants.

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/peacocks.php

 

[Evil_Jon]

Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[Evil_Jon]

Will my pleco's destroy plants? One is 12" and the other is 8".