65 watts for a 20 long

[Punkymom]

I am going to plant my 20 long (which isn't even set up yet) however I'm having trouble finding the proper lighting. Ideally, I'd like to go with no more than 60 watts on this tank, but the most readily available to me is 65. Any online stores that sell a 30" long 60 watt light fixture (not plastic, I have a glass canopy on top of it because it's going to house a butterfly fish) at an affordable price? And could I get away with 65 watts? I'm planning on having it heavily planted. I will be doing a C02 system on it, also.

 

[malkore]

www.hellolights.com - $55 for a 65watt freshwater aqualight, by Coralife. Not sure if it's 30" though...that's sort of an off-size for power compact bulbs.

 

[SteveM]

I think that Coralife fixture is 30" wide, with a standard 21" power compact bulb in it. I was looking at it for the 29G tank that I don't own yet. It should work fine on a 20L tank. Five watts give or take isn't going to make much difference in your resulting light levels I would say.

 

[Punkymom]

Ok cool. There's a petstore about an hour from my house that sells a 30" strip like that. I was going to get it, but the high wattage freaked me out.

 

[youronlysin]

For a heavily planted tank with co2 injection, I would say that you would only benefit from at least 65 Watts. 3 wpg isnt really considered a huge amount of light in this case. A lot of heavily planted tanks with co2 supplementation are lit with, in excess of, 4-5 wpg. I will say that with 3 wpg, you will almost have the "need" for co2 injection. Without it youll, most likely, be fighting algae.

 

[penpitt]

Try this one from bigalsonline. Its an All-glass 55w 30".

http://www.bigalsonline.com/catalog/product.xml?product_id=24077;category_id=1875;pcid1=1843;pcid2=