Help with lighting please?

[Jaded_Pulse]

Hey all. Getting a light for my 15gal, just wondering what kind. There was stuff like sun-glow & moon-glow, white light, blue light, red light.........all very confusing, so thought I'd come ask you intelligent people what kind I need because they're so expensive if I buy the wrong one!!

Thanx heaps everyone.
Michelle.

 

[EddieW]

Hi Michelle,

What are you going to have in the tank, type of plants, type of fish, etc.?

Also what wattage are you considering?

Cheers, Eddie

 

[Lateral Line]

As Eddie says, so much depends. Most fish can live without lights in the tank at all, the natural in fall of light is good enough. Blind fish don't even need that.

Plants are a different matter. Generally you'll want a full spectrum lamp, none of the fancy pink, blue, yellow, green, pale blue with yellow spots or whatever, 5500K - 6500K daylight lamps. How much depends on the size of your tank, its shape to a certain extent, and what type of plants. For "Medium light in a regular shaped tank, you'll want at least 2 Watts per gallon of full spectrum light turned on for 10-12 hours a day. More in a deep tank, a hex for example.

If you are talking reef with inverts, thats a whole new game, one which I'm not experienced to discuss, but you need a lot of light and more blue light.

 

[dead_letters]

I have a cold water aquarium and it has a white light in it.I was told white light emits less heat to the water.

 

[Jaded_Pulse]

Thanx, everyone. Now for all the important info I left out in my rush last night )

Tank - freshwater setup with powerhead, heater. Temperature hovers around 27-28*C/80-82*F - kinda high coz my lfs said if I leave it like that for a few days after introducing the new fishies (done yesterday) that would help keep any risk of disease to a minimum seeing as I don't have a quarantine tank at the moment. It's around 15gal (approx. 60L), I think it's a fairly standard rectangular make, approx. 23.5" x 12.5" x 15" (L x W x H).....ok well now I've measured I'm not so sure it's a 15 (US) gallon because I went to a few conversion sites which gave me varying figures - everything from 13gal to 20gal (all US gallons)....so however big you think my tank is I guess......

Fish - I have tetras (4 colombians & soon to be adding 3-5 black widows to my current 1), a small apple snail, & will hopefully soon be getting a blue ram, don't think I'll have any left over room from that but if I do I'll either get 3 small cories of some kind, or 4-5 otos (though bogwood's almost impossible to get here, so probably the cories)....Don't think I'll have that kind of room though unfortunately

Plants - I want to have ones that will grow sort of at different levels, like big ones & little ones, & of different shapes etc. if u know what I mean. I've been told some types of Anubius are good, & also Java Fern, Amazon Sword, Wisteria, & Anacharis. Not sure which of these are available here, but they all sound fairly easy to grow, & don't need too much lighting from what I've read (correct me if I'm wrong).

So anyways, Lighting - if the crazy coloured ones are no good, does that leave me getting one of those day-glow ones or just a plain white one? Or are they the same thing...?? *sigh* so much information, I'm confused ) oh well, thanx so much for all your help everyone. BTW - if anybody thinks I'm doing anything wrong so far please tell me!! They seem to be doing fine so far but I want to do the best I can for my fishies. Thanx!!