Medium Difficult/Medium Light

[MitcherNeaf]

I went to the Pet store today and every play they sell is in the medium difficulty/ medium light category. So what does this mean for me... i have a 55 gallon, what can i get away with as far as a light source, and what kind of substrate, i was thinkg PFS cause i heard it was relatively cheap, and i also saw that getting black was probably the best choice.

Some of the plants are Broad sagitarria, Banana, Jungle Val, Amazon sword, Wisteria, Frill, Crinum (Onion Plant), and a Red Wendtii.

What ya guys think thanks alot. Also will i need CO2 for this, i hope not, not into spending that kind of money.
thanks
mitch

[rkilling1]

what kinda light do you have?

[Purrbox]

Your tank probably has a 40 watt NO light unless you've upgraded the stock lighting. The only plant that you listed that will have much chance with that lighting is the Cryptocoryne Wendtii 'Red'.

Your options are to upgrade your light or to get most of your plants somewhere else. If you were to get a second strip light upgrading your light to 80 watts, you would have just under 1.5 WPG, which is roughly Medium Low Light, and opens a broader selection of plants to choose from. Many of the plants you listed would have a chance with that amount of light. As long as you don't go over 2 WPG, you should be able to get away with avoiding CO2.

There are lots of great places to get plants online including our very own Barter/Trade forum where plant trimmings are often offered for just the cost of shipping or a little more.

[MitcherNeaf]

Well what i wanted to do in the first place was go for medium light, i figured that woudl give me the widest range of plants without the use of Co2 due to cost. Im willing to go out and get new lightbubls, just not sure what i need, you are thinking around 2 40watt bulbs? Ill have to check that out, besides that what is the best substrate. PFS or something else?
thanks
Mitch
PS. anything else i need for medium lights i shoudl know about before getting too far into this.

[mr funktastic]

2 40 watt daylight bulbs would be good. but do u have a 48" fixture? alot of the 55 gal kits came with 2 18" fixtures instead of 1 long one. u can just buy a 48" dual strip shoplight for like 15 bucks at home depot. u will probaably want to pick up some fertalizers just in case. u will want pottasium for sure. it is the most common difficiency that can be easily avoided. u cant overdose potassium so u cant screw it up. u may also want nitrate depending on how heay your fish load is. the best substarte in my opinion is eco complete. its a black earth like substarte with a sand/fine gravel mix. looks awesome and contains nutrients benificial to plant. flourite is good also but clouds really really badly and i dont personally like it.pfs sand is good also but contains no nutrients and u have to make sure u get MTS or the sand will compact forming gas pockets. or stir it manually. keep in mind also that PFS is 7 bucks fopr 50 pounds compared to eco which is about 30 bucks for 20 pounds...

[MitcherNeaf]

about how many pounds am i going to need for my 55 gallon, i already have around 1 inch of rocks on the bottom i was wondering if i could get away with just putting the sand or eco on top of that to get around 4 inches?