75 gallon with plants and fish... How much light?

[Grits]

How much light is normal to have on a 75 gallon tank? And also, Can you have to much light for the fish to be comfortable?

Right now I have one 48in 40 watt fluorescent light strip. I'm thinking of adding at least another single strip, or maybe even a double. Would that be too much light for my tank?

My Fish:

1 Red Tail Shark
1 Rainbow Shark
1 Zebra Botia
2 Clown Loaches
2 Golden Rams
1 Black Swordtail
2 Common Plecs
3 Cories

My Plants:

A little Elodea and cobomba
1 fairly large Amazon Sword
1 Hygrophlia
2 smaller plants (I"m not sure of the name)

 

[blazeyreef]

no not at all! It would also help your plants a lot. Right now you have .53 watts... if you add another strip it would be 1.06 and if you add double it would be 1.6watts. That is not to much at all! There are people that have a good 4watts/gallon on their planted and as much as 7-9watt/gallon on saltwater
as long is their is some shade/hiding places (which your sword will provide some) if/when you fish need a break they can just go to some shade

 

[Purrbox]

I'd probably go for the double light strip since it will give you 1.5WPG. That's an excellant starting point. It expands your plant options but will be fairly low mainenance.

 

[Zezmo]

I have 390 watts of Compact Fluorescent lights over my 72 gallon (5.4 wpg), and I often wonder if I should go ahead and add more light.

A 4x 55 watt CF fixtures (such as a coralife one) would be pretty typical lighting for a tank that size. A 4x 54 watt HO T5 fixture is also a very common choice.

1 Red Tail Shark
1 Rainbow Shark

BTW, These guys tend to be territorial, and are aggresive toward conspecifics. They generally prefer to only have one per tank. A heavily planted tank is a good way to make sure the weaker one has plenty of places to hide.

 

[Grits]

Thanks everyone!

Some people have told me that if I get up to around 2wpg I would need to add co2. I really don't want to get into that yet though.

So, should I be all right as long as I stay under 2 wpg?

 

[Purrbox]

Somewhere between 2-2.5WPG is where injecting CO2 generally ceases to be optional. With less light you'd still get better results with CO2 injection, but you can still have a great planted aquarium without it.