low light ? on 100 gal. tank

[mom2reds]

I am trying to save for good but cheap lights for my tank. My tank is 60 inch long so would I be able to use on 48 inch light fixture or do I need so other size. also what kind of T rating would I need and what K rating would be best. I would like to do low light plants with no co2. Any recomendations would be great thanks.

Tess

 

[blazeyreef]

maybe 2x 30 inch, 130 watts, which would give you 260 watts which would be a low light tank and it would be very affordable considering...

 

[newfound77951]

the 2x30" is a good idea....but 260 watts on a 100 gallon would be pushing medium to medium-high light and may require CO2. A couple options....either replace one bulb in each fixture with an actinic (if you buy SW fixtures this is likely how they will come anyway), which reduces the "plant available" light to 130 watts, or buy two 30", 65 watt (1 bulb) fixtures. The disadvantage of the second option is that the 65 watt bulbs are 24" long which might leave some darker spots, and the two bulb fixtures will be more flexible down the road if you decide to try some higher light plants.

 

[mom2reds]

So you guys think that 2 30" fixtures would be better. Is this the type of fixture ya'll are talking about , Dual satellite compact fluorescent fixture it has 130 watt( 2-65 watt) 1 lunar light. I found it in the dr. fosters mag. for 131.69$. so It would cost me about 263.38 for two of them. Is this about as cheap as I am going to find them or would somewhere else be better.

Thanks for you input
Tess

 

[Purrbox]

If you don't mind refurbished, you could buy them from Tri City Tropicals for $90 each.

 

[mom2reds]

Thanks purrbox I will have to keep an eye out for them the are out of stock at this time. Do you think it will be ok just to buy one and put it on there with my other lights till I can save enough to buy the other one or will that cause too much of an inbalance.

Thanks again Tess

 

[gu2high]

I recommend Coralife PC lights, it is a very good light. You can buy it from bigalsonline.com. They are selling everything at 10% off now if you spend $50 or more. I just bought a 24" 65W light for my 20 gallon high tank.