Watts per Gallon

[Girlthrower]

More stuff has arrived for my tank, I am now thinking about aquascaping..

I have read alot on watts/gallon rule, for low-high light plants/tanks, but am a little confused.

In my previous set-up I had 25w per 33 Gallons = 0.75 watts/gallon. My plants grew well, a few cm's a month (I think this is considered slow), vals growing faster, but I considered this pretty adequate, (no pearling though). According to ALL sources, this should have NOT happened.

I did however have aluminium foil (baking foil) taped to inside of hood to maximise use of available light.

I have now doubled light to 50 w, should give me 50w/33gallons = 1.5w/gallon. I am wondering what growth I will recieve given previous observed growth and current literature/views etc.

Also, I have seen many a planted tank pic with the lights in hood, or hanging over tank a good 6 inches to a foot over top of the tank, with light obviously filtering everywhere including down into the tank. How much difference could this make, and could it be why I seem to have growth with less watts/gallon. (As most of available light goes straight down to tank rather than half going elsewhere.

[Buddha_Red]

lighting is the most annoying part of plant care. The bigger the tank you have the easier it is to find lighting.

I havent seen any tanks with overlaping lighting but i wouldnt want one personally. Check ebay for jebo maybe there is one small enough. When i had my 29 gallon i did fine with low light plants, but couldnt find a easy solution.

lighting gets expensive quick if your not the DYI type like me.I cant remember the last thing i made with wood.

You can also try home depot or lowes and see if they have any small floresent lights. make sure they have sunlight bulbs. maybe you will get lucky.


i think angelmom did a project with lights maybe she or others can help.