Lighting Questions for live plants. Overkill or O.K.???

[doubledragon]

The tank is a 125g and is going to be mostly anglefish and live plants.

My question is would a 72" Coralife 384w PC Fixture with 4 96w bulbs, 2 actinic, and 2 10k with blue lunar lights be a overkill or would it be to my advantage??? I want to start out doing it the right way from the start. It is the one with the mounting legs, but there will be a glass hood on top of the tank.

My other option is to put double strip lights on it, 4 40w bulbs, and use plant lights in them. Would that be enough???? The tank will be right beside a big window so lot's of light will be coming through in the mornings.

Thanks in advance!!!!!!!

 

[Spiritwind]

I would think the Coralife is good if you were going to also use CO2 and fertilizers. The strip lights would have much less light obviously, you would have to choose lower light plants. Watts doesnt equal watts in this case, a rough guess would be that the 4x40watt would provide around 20%-40% usuable light compared to the coralife, because of power difference, and the reflectors(if the strip lights dont have reflectors, that would be the 20%).

You didnt mention fresh or salt water, but most people view actinic to do nothing for freshwater plants.

 

[WyldFya]

First thing... What type of plants do you want? Second, do you intend to switch the Coralife stock bulbs for all 6500-6700K bulbs? Neither setup will be good for a high light setup, but both will be fine for low light.

 

[doubledragon]

I would think the Coralife is good if you were going to also use CO2 and fertilizers. The strip lights would have much less light obviously, you would have to choose lower light plants. Watts doesnt equal watts in this case, a rough guess would be that the 4x40watt would provide around 20%-40% usuable light compared to the coralife, because of power difference, and the reflectors(if the strip lights dont have reflectors, that would be the 20%).

You didnt mention fresh or salt water, but most people view actinic to do nothing for freshwater plants.

The tank will be a fresh water setup, the bulbs I listed are just what would come with the fixture. Wow, the double strip light's would only be 20-40% as affective, that's a big difference. I haven't really thought about a CO2 system on the tank. Can you do that without spending a arm and a leg?

 

[doubledragon]

First thing... What type of plants do you want? Second, do you intend to switch the Coralife stock bulbs for all 6500-6700K bulbs? Neither setup will be good for a high light setup, but both will be fine for low light.

The plant's would be sword plant's and other common plant's you see at LFS's. I could switch the bulb's to whatever is more benificial to the plant's, those are just the bulbs that come with the fixture. Is 6500-6700k the best lights for plant's?
Would this fixture be a lot better than just two double 36" strip lights with the same bulb's?

 

[WyldFya]

CF and T12 are roughly the same light output per watt, however, a CF has nearly triple the watts. You don't really need the dual linear 72" fixture, as you can easily get away with a single linear cf light. 6500-6700K are generally good for plants.

 

[doubledragon]

Thank's, so could I do o.k. with two single 36" strip lights, with T12 bulbs of 6500-6700k, instead of a double strip, on this tank?

 

[WyldFya]

Two single 36" T12 bulbs would not be enough to grow much, amazon swords would not do too well even.

 

[Spiritwind]

There is DIY CO2, (personally never used it) high light levels + CO2 = huge fast growing plants. Balance between CO2 and light level is important for the plants to get the most potential.

Thats about the right range 6500k-6700k. Have you looked at http://www.ahsupply.com/96watt.htm , a couple of those would be a great start for most plants. If it turns out you like those higher light requirement plants, you can always add 2 more later or whatever. I have only heard good things about this company, and that they are also very helpful if you give them a call.