Sounds good on the waiting to upgrade lights before getting more plants. I have two possible ideas but I am unsure how good either idea is. Also, depends slightly on how much money you want to throw into this. Your tank, as far as planted tanks go, is very, very tall, making it more challenging to light, however, because we are avoiding high light that actually makes this not so bad.,
Idk if I can post links to sellers on here, so I won't....but idea #1 is to get a 48" Finnex RayII fixture AND a 48" MonsterRay (also finnex) to get to medium lighting.
The Pro's: LED lighting will last for years and years without needing to be changed, also might consume less energy.
The Con's: LED lighting is what it is, you can't change the color combinations and the lights also shoot straight down more, meaning that in order to properly light the tank, you will need 2 fixtures for good coverage and all. Also, more expensive initially.
My next idea is to get a Solar Catalina T5-HO Fixture, the 3 bulb one (or heck, maybe even the 4 bulb one given how tall your tank is)
The Pro's: T5-HO lighting is very versatile, you can change color combinations and you can make burst lighting effects (such as, run lights for 8 hours, but run the third and/or fourth bulb for only 2 hours). It is also initially cheaper.
The Con's: More expensive over time. You NEED to change the bulbs out at least once a year. Within the first year, this option already becomes the more expensive of the two options.
