Plant lighting question

[duckdog]

Sorry for all the posts today bin going crazy lol anyways here is the deal we bought a Top Fin 55gal kit and I just finnished up my DYI CO2 but as luck has it I am stuck on ideas to add enought light we want to keep some low light plants but our kit came with two hoods holding each one 15watt aqua glow lights so we have only approx .54 watts per gallon any suggestions to add more light without breaking the pocket book?

Thanks In Advance
Nelson

 

[Todd2]

I strongly urge you to not use CO2 with that much lighting. Other wise you will have a massive algae outbreak. I would only use it when you have 2+ wpg. You could go to Lowes or Home Depot and get a couple of 48" shoplights and build a DIY wooden enclosure. I think the 48" ones are 40W but I could be wrong. If you got 3-4 of those that would help you a lot. If you go that route buy the Philips or GE Plant and Aquarium bulb. They're much cheaper than the ones you can buy at a LFS.

Another option would be to go with CF lighting. I would look at ahsupply.com or hellolights.com. CF will run you a little more then NO lighting but its worth it. For low light plants you really only need 1.5-2 wpg. Theres tons of info on the web regarding DIY lighting and such. Read as much as you can. HTH.

 

[duckdog]

What about those screw in energy efficient flos you can buy would they work or help?

 

[Simpte]

There are a cpl of options you have here depending on what you consider breaking the bank.

A 48 inch 2x55 pc fixture is about $120.00 at Big Al's. THis will give you 2wpg (approx) of pc lighting (more efficient tha N.O. lights)

If you have a 48 inch stripligh available you can go with a 2x55 bright kit from AHsupply for about $65.00 but you will need PC bulbs also. This lighting will be better than the one above due to the quality of reflectors AHsupply uses (The absolute best IME).

http://www.aquatraders.com sell really cheap Odyssea lighting (PC) fixtures. You may wat to replace the bulbs. The have been know to be lousy with customer service and shipping takes 7-9 days but the prices are unbeatable and I've had no problems with them. (I have a 24 inch 65 watt PC fixture and a 48 inch 4x55 watt PC fixture and both work great).

Big Al's also has a triple tube 48 inch N.O. fixture. Thats descent lighting (not sure if the 48 inch tube is 40watts or 32) but if its 40 thats 120 watts with a better spread than a PC fixture. It runs $99.99.

Last Option is a T5 double strip. (You would need 2 of these). 56 watts per fixture at ~ $48.00 apiece.

You are not going to find much for under approx $100.00. These are some viable options. Hope this helps.

 

[czcz]

Since you want low light, get a 40w or 30w NO fixture from your home improvement store and you're off and running. 6700K "daylight bulbs" will look nicer than plant and aquarium bulbs and you should be able to find them at the store too. Cheap! Your DIY CO2 set-up won't hurt. Check out Jchillin's tank as he's been messing with low light over a 55g for some time and takes lots of pics.

When you get around to plants, check out the pond section of local plant nurseries. You can get huge portions of anacharis, hornwort and such at such places for cheaper than the LFS.

 

[urville]

go to Wal-Mart the have "Lights of America" Shoplights whicha re better because they power a wide variety of bulbs both t-12 and t-8 and 32 and 40 watts. You want bulbs that fall in the Chlorophyll Action Spectrum

My suggestions here are:
Phillips Plant & Aquarium Bulbs - Home Depot
GE Plant & Aquarium - Wal-Mart
GE Fresh & Salwater (this will be with the fish stuff) Wal-Mart
Sylvania Gro-Lux NON-Wide Spectrum - Lowe's
All very cheap all grow plants fantastic! I really suggest mixing the Ge Fresh & Salts with the Plant & Aquariums for the best mix of coloring. I use A Sylvania Gro-Lux, GE Fresh & Salt and GE Pl;ant & Aquarium and just for instance my Bacopa grows new stems from every leaf node like a bush and my fish literally GLOW
Ian