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lighting for planted tank - HELP!


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So I picked up a couple tanks from Subscape a while ago and was looking to plant one out, the question is how much light will I need?? what sort of watts? should I go LED (found a couple cheap options on ebay) or T5 fluro??

Tank specs are 32" long x 18'' high x 16'' deep, or in centimetres, 81 x 46 x 41.

Sp. I plan on having in there are;

Alternanthera reineckii

java fern

Eleocharis Belem

taiwan moss/flame moss.

Thanks for any advice.

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I'm curious to know as well. LED lighting seems to be the way forward but 'aquarium specific' LED lighting is ridiculously expensive - I've toyed with the idea of the standard eBay (or DealExtreme)-special LED strips, but would this be enough light (and wavelength) for plant growth?

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Don't go for cheap eBay LED set ups, they don't work to well..... The LED floodlights in the 6000-6500K range are good though. I would go for two 20 watt ones over your tank, alternatively guppies has a good CFL lighting option which is pretty good :) you wont need much light for those plants...

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I have an LED light that I got off eBay for my planted tank.. It's a Beamworks brand one. It's not too bad but I'm not really happy with it. I ended up buying some LED floodlights in ''pure white' that I'm about to set up instead. I agree, go straight for the floodlights! There a couple of different floodlight set ups on here. Do a search and you should find them.

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