55 Gallon Tank lighting for both plants and reef

I'm looking for a new lighting system for my 55gal so I can get live plants its 48" and 260 watts so almost 4 watts a gallon I know that's enough for most live plants but is that enough light for a reef tank if I wanted to switch later on? about how many watts per gallon would I need for a reef tank?

 

A lot of questions. Your biggest issue is going to be wanting to switch to atinic lights to get the best light to your reef (assuming you're using T5HO--you haven't specified what kind of lighting). What kind of corals do you want to keep? Hard corals are going to require a lot of light. You might want to look into MH or LED for a reef tank. If you're planning on keeping soft corals it should be fine though.

 

this is the title of it 48" 260w Pl Aquarium Light Reef Marine Fish Tank Hood Light and the description: Our latest designed aquarium light comes with (2) 65W fluorescent white daylight lamps, (2) x 65W actinic blue lamps and (8) blue moon LED lights. This may provide the full spectrum for better growth of all plants, flowers, reefs, macro algae and corals such as leather coral, polyps, mushrooms and live rocks with beneficial coralline. Perfect for freshwater and saltwater aquarium fish tank.

 

Those actinic lights aren't going to do a whole lot of good for plants to be honest. Are you definitely going for reef after this?

You still need to figure out what you want for corals? I believe you'll have trouble with stony corals with that light setup. WPG is not a very good measurement for reef keeping success. Light intensity is more important. A lot of people recommend comparing PAR values instead now.

 

ohh okay this whole thing is so confusing lets just say I'm not going to switch to reef cuz I prob won't til after I move out so I don't have to tear it all down and stuff, what do I need for plants? med-high lights

 

What kind of plants do you really want to keep? Are your parents going to mind you killing their electrical bill? You'll want bulbs in the 6700K--8000K range, they tend to be best for growing plants. Avoid actinics. 4x54watt T5HO is going to be very strong light on your tank, and depending on how long you run it for you might run into Algae problems. Another thing to consider is how good the reflectors are on your fixture. Individual reflectors are best and help increase the strength of the light greatly, but are not cheap. The same is said for bulbs. You can get an ebay fixture, and they're honestly not worthless, but don't expect nice bulbs.

 

hmm...well thanks a lot to think about...this is harder than I thought it would be

 

What plants you want to keep depends on your lighting. It all starts with the light. If you go with medium light or more you will need CO2 and a balanced fertilizer with the possibility of Root tabs being needed. It depends how far you want to go.....with trial and error. Need to start somewhere, I did. There's ways to reduce light intensity like with screening. You get a light that could grow a wide range of plants, start simple first with reduce lighting and work your way up. That's my 2cents. Edit: I'm not an expert on planted tanks though.

Fast growing stem plants like Water Wisteria would be a good choice for med-high light.

 

I was planning on med-hidh lights and using a DIY Co2 unit and ferts tabs for under the roots