Aquarium lighting

[Roshan8768]

Hey guys, im new to this forum. Im gonna try to bring this discussio? Back to lighting for a sec..... Ok, so i have a 55 gallon established aquarium that for the first 8 months i kept as a fish only tank. But i have since decided to try my hand at live plants again (its been years since my last attempt..didnt do any research then though and just thought if i throw the plant in water it would grow lol).

So first i thought i will just do low light plants, so i upgraded the standard lighting with a 48" LED Finnex Fugeray Planted +, which i have read in many forums is sufficient for low to medium light plants. Then i started to learn that all the pretty non boring plant require medium to High light. So i bought another fixture with 2 48" T5 HO bulbs at 54 watts per bulb. So i am now running both the Finnex LED and the T5s. Being that LED's cant be assessed by the old watts per gallon method, i am having difficulty knowing what level of lighting i have. Is it medium or high? Really would like to know because I have some high light red plants on the way lol

That's a ton of light. You're going to have loads of algae issues if you don't raise those lights or do CO2/excel. I would add a lot of plants so that your tank is 50-75% filled with plants to outcompete the algae at the start. Also keep your photoperiod short ~8 hrs. GL

[steelo27]

That's a ton of light. You're going to have loads of algae issues if you don't raise those lights or do CO2/excel. I would add a lot of plants so that your tank is 50-75% filled with plants to outcompete the algae at the start. Also keep your photoperiod short ~8 hrs. GL

Oh yeah, i have pressurized co2, dose excel, and 3 otto cats, 2 mystery snails and one bristal nose pleco... (as well as other fish but thats my algea team).

But for some reason i would still place my light at medium to possibly medium high. Its 19" from subtrate surface to the light which i do have sitting on top of the glass canopy.

[Roshan8768]

You have more than enough light for 99% of the plants out there. You may have some spread issues since the fixture is so close to the tank, but other than that with good water parameters you should be able to grow anything you want since you have a stable source of CO2. How are your plants doing so far?

[mistahoo]

Roshan's basically named everything, but I agree. That is a ton of light! Shouldn't be a problem growing anything in there so long as your CO2 is stable and that if you do dose excel to do it on a timed schedule. Filling in the tank with a lot of plants will help prevent any algae issues that may come with the high light and excess nutrients (CO2 & Excel)