Hey guys, im new to this forum. Im gonna try to bring this discussio? Back to lighting for a sec..... Ok, so i have a 55 gallon (long) established aquarium that for the first 8 months i kept as a fish only tank. But i have since decided to try my hand at live plants again (its been years since my last attempt..didnt do any research then though and just thought if i throw the plant in water it would grow lol).
So first i thought i will just do low light plants, so i upgraded the standard lighting with a 48" LED Finnex Fugeray Planted +, which i have read in many forums is sufficient for low to barely medium light plants. Then i started to learn that all the pretty non boring plant require medium to High light. So i bought another fixture with 2 48" T5 HO bulbs at 54 watts per bulb. So i am now running both the Finnex LED and the T5s. Being that LED's cant be assessed by the old watts per gallon method, i am having difficulty knowing what level of lighting i have. Is it medium or high? Really would like to know because I have some high light red plants on the way ((Rotala macrandra and Ammannia Gracilis) lol. My tank is 18" deep from the subtrate surface to the lights which shine through a glass top. So do i have low, medium, or high lighting ya think? Any help or insight would be a huge help.
So first i thought i will just do low light plants, so i upgraded the standard lighting with a 48" LED Finnex Fugeray Planted +, which i have read in many forums is sufficient for low to barely medium light plants. Then i started to learn that all the pretty non boring plant require medium to High light. So i bought another fixture with 2 48" T5 HO bulbs at 54 watts per bulb. So i am now running both the Finnex LED and the T5s. Being that LED's cant be assessed by the old watts per gallon method, i am having difficulty knowing what level of lighting i have. Is it medium or high? Really would like to know because I have some high light red plants on the way ((Rotala macrandra and Ammannia Gracilis) lol. My tank is 18" deep from the subtrate surface to the lights which shine through a glass top. So do i have low, medium, or high lighting ya think? Any help or insight would be a huge help.
