lighting question

[emu]

what's the best form of lighting for a planted tank? my light right now that came with the tank is 50/50 pc. should i go for full day light spectrum only or is the actinic even necessary?

[awbowden]

The actinic bulbs wont do anything for your plants.

[AngelMom]

The key with freshwater plants is to make sure that most of the output from the bulbs falls within the 5000K to 7500K color temperature. Actinic (as mentioned) is useless with FW plants and I've read that I may actually harm the plants (though I don't remember where I saw that). The dual daylight bulbs I've seen have (IMO) too much toward the 10,000K color temp so I tend to stifck with the straight 6700K bulbs.

HTH

[emu]

what about wattage for a 17 gallon. my hood only takes one bulb so im looking for a powercompact with enough watts and falls between the right kelvin line... thanks!

[AngelMom]

What wattage is your hood rated for? That is your limiting factor.

[TypicalNoah]

Hey,

Same question. Need to get about 40 watts of light over my 20L; where the heck do I find a simple solution? All-Glass Aquarium's 30" double costs 75 bucks! Hell, I can get a 48" double shop light fixture at the hardware store for 20... isn't there something cheaper? Maybe a cheap 40/60 W PC fixture? Arg!

- Frustrated

[TypicalNoah]

Oops! See other thread.