New 55 gal. corner tank- Need Light fixture recommendation!

[Lance M.]

Hey guys-

I just got a new 55 gallon tank for Christmas. I am going to combine m 20 gallon, 10 gallon, and 5 gallon planted tanks into that one 55. All of the plants are relatively low light- Anubias, swords, java fern, and crypts. I would need to aim at around 3-4 wpg right? So does a fixture around 165 to 220 watts sound good? What do you guys recomend?

TIA

 

[Lonewolfblue]

Actually, with 3-4w/g, you would need CO2, as that's getting to high light. With the plants you have, you've be better off between 1.5-2w/g. Then you would not need CO2.

 

[Purrbox]

Unless you want to start growing high light plants and getting into CO2 and heavy fert dosing, you would be better off sticking to LWB's advice. If you want to stick with the low light plants for now but leave room to switch to high light plants later, you could buy a fixture with the wattage you suggested and only turn on half of the lights for now. Then when you are ready to step up to high light plants you would just need to add CO2, ferts, and switch the rest of the lights on.

 

[Lance M.]

Ok. I have a coralife 65 watt pc fixture that I used on my 20 gallon SW reef before I upgraded it. So could I just change the buld (50/50 daylight/actinic) to a daylight (6700K) bulb and that would be good?

 

[rich311k]

That would do the job pretty well. You may want to watch the swords though, they may need a little bit more light. If you have the stock fixture that came with the tank that might be a good combo of light.

 

[Lance M.]

Yea I got this cheap flourescent light with the tank- 15 watt 24'' hood rofl.
I'm pretty sure that won't cut it.