J2theD

Hi everyone....


I am currently in the process of setting up my 75 gallon tank I recently purchased and am making my way from sub-forum to sub-forum asking for help and suggestions about setting up my tank.

Now I am on to the lights

I am waiting for my frame to arrive @ the LFS, and it will be a 48 inch with the middle support, so two 24inch hoods.

I plan on having live plants in my tank, and was curious as to what lights or hood I should use in my tank. Are the normal ones sufficient, or should I get some special lights? I am on a budget, but do not mind paying a little extra for good quality stuff.

Please let me know if I need better lights, and any suggestions/reccomendations you have.

-This is a community tank (if that matters), and the filter will be a fluval 405 canister.


Thanks,

J.D.

carlos413

You will need better light than the ones that come with you regular hood. We would need some more info. Do you know what type of plants youre looking to get? I would look in to what plants you're looking to get find out what there needs are than choose your lighting accordently. Most people get about 1.5 watts to 2 watts per galon.
Excuse the spelling English is my second language.
Hope this helps

harpua2002

I agree. The stock lighting won't be sufficient even for low light plants, but we can't really give you a recommendation without knowing what you'd like to do with the tank. Do you want low light, easy plants, or would you rather have medium to high light plants (which would probably require the addition of CO2 and fert dosing).

I was under the impression that you already had one Fluval 405 and would be adding another? Just one on its own won't be enough for a 75 gallon IMO.

Angela_96

I would check out Foster and Smiths website, we got a duel sat 24 hour lighting system for 2 of our tanks (one of them 48 inches long) the 48 inch one is awesome.
I don't think we paid 250$ for both systems.

They also have glass hoods, but I found better deals on the glass tops at petsmart.

enthusiast

J2theD:
i too, have a 75 gal. community planted tank.
I also use a fluval 405 canister filter.

On my tank i have 2- double bulb, 4 ft. light fixtures. There was room for them to fit side by side across the top and still be able to open the lids for feeding.

The lights i use are expensive bulbs from the pet store, and i have the spectrums alternating. By this i mean, when you buy bulbs for your fixtures, some give out a spectrum making the bulb appear red, and some bulbs appear blue. My bulbs are alternating red, blue, red, blue... making sure my plants are getting a good dose of each spectrum!

I have pictures on my profile of this 75 gal community planted tank if your interested in seeing how good its doing, and how good yours could also be. Ofcourse setting your tank in a window would greatly increase your light too, when my plants were at their thickest density i moved the tank so that it was getting direct sunlight in densely planted area. This is good for alot of plants- bad if you dont have that density. Without many plants direct sunlight will greatly increase your temp. & give you blooms of green water algae for what seems to be never-ending!

hope this helped if you'd have any more-specific quesitons pm me