6' Planted tank. Got questions....

[john73738]

So my son is changing his tank and I am going to take over his fish and plants.

The Specifics:
The tank is 72 L x 15 W x 18 H
The fish are mostly Rose line sharks and Siamese algae eaters.
Planting will be thick with areas of carpeted plants
Substrate is gravel with a thick layer of fluorite.
DIY CO2 system.

Lets talk about lighting. I am looking at 2 156 watt t5 fixtures. ( 2x 10000K and 2x Actinic Blue lamps) Is this going to be overkill? 312 watts comes to app. 4 watts per gallon. (I know the WPG is as antiquated as the inch per gallon rule) Would 2 78 watt T5 fixtures be OK?

Thanks for any help given, this is my first foray into the planted tank.

 

[ilikeb00st]

hello, for the lights, i suggest using bulbs in the range of 6700k to 10000k (maybe combination of both if you would like more white/blueish look). as far as your concern with the wattage, i dont think it will be an overkill especially with a co2 system. are you planning on spreading the fixtures side by side? (i assume a 36" in lengh?)

also remember than they recommend you replacing the bulbs every year

 

[carsona246]

It really depends on what kind of planted tank you want. If you don't want to wait very long for your plants to grow, i'd go high light and get the 4 wpg lighting. If you want to be able to take your time and not dose tons of ferts/co2 or trim your tank out a ton, I'd go the 2 wpg lighting. I had 2 18 watt bulbs on my ten gallon tank, and I was dosing more than I expected to keep the plants growing properly and to keep the algae in check. Just to make a recommendation there is really no need to buy fancy lightbulbs. I bought the fish/plant T8 bulbs from lowes that were in the right spectrum for my ten gallon planted tank, and it worked fantastically.

 

[z400]

412 watts per gallon with DIY Co2 is not going to work.

Your going to have a tank that grows little plants and plenty of algae.