Watts Per Gallon

[CluelessScot]

My tank is a 45Gallon (US) or 38Gallon (UK) so how much watts per gallon do u need?

I just updated my lighting today (home diy job lol) but i had a single 30W tube and have upgraded to having 75W's now.

If we are going by Uk gallons then i have 2 watts per gallon but if we are going by US then im only at 1.2 Wats per gallon...
At the moment the tanks looking well bright and i can actully see my fishes true colours

Oh and im using T8's (they any good?)

Kev

 

[Angry_Platy]

When referring to watts per gallon we generally use US gallons which would make yours 1.2wpg. This is considered to be low light in terms of what plants you can grow. It may seem visibly bright but trust me, when I had 0.8wpg I though it was bright until I upgraded to 1.6wpg then 3.2wpg (gradually for the fish).....at 1.6wpg I felt like I need sunglasses to look at the tank.....at 3.2wpg for a week or so it seemed SOOOO bright. Now I have gotten used to it its not so bad though compared to my other non-planted tanks they seem dull in comparison.

HTH

 

[blue_ram]

Angry Platy summed it pretty well. As for the T-8, it's more efficient (approx. 15%) than the standard T-12 (usually). I say, usually because some manufacturers produce T-12 bulb in T-8 form factor. So you THINK you're getting the benefit of T-8's efficiency, but you're not. Furthermore, these pseudo T-8 are NOT compatible with the normal T-8. The manufacturers seemed to have screwed up the fluorescent light standards beyond recognition.

 

[Griz]

US gallons you say?

So, I guess I'm worse off than I thought. I only have 0.5 WPG. And all this time I thought I had 0.6.

 

[@ombomb]

When referring to watts per gallon we generally use US gallons which would make yours 1.2wpg. This is considered to be low light in terms of what plants you can grow. It may seem visibly bright but trust me, when I had 0.8wpg I though it was bright until I upgraded to 1.6wpg then 3.2wpg (gradually for the fish).....at 1.6wpg I felt like I need sunglasses to look at the tank.....at 3.2wpg for a week or so it seemed SOOOO bright. Now I have gotten used to it its not so bad though compared to my other non-planted tanks they seem dull in comparison.

HTH

I know just what you mean, now it's dark in the evening, my living room windows from the outside are like a lighthouse with the tank lights on. Guides me home after a night on the sauce

 

[jimbooo]

yep is's US gallons but fear not you can still have a sucessfull planted tank with low light

my 50G (60USG) cube has 4x20W tubes so 1.3WPG plus diy co2. it's not as impressive as the other 2 tanks but it's surprised me as to the speed of growth etc. the nutrient uptake (based on ei) is almost as fast as in the other tanks (both around 2.5wpg)

also bear in mind this tank is 2 foot deep!!

here's a pic

 

[CluelessScot]

lol impressed

 

[jimbooo]

thanks mate, should have added thats 4 T8 tubes not anything special plus laterite mixed with the gravel.

thats by far the easiest of my tanks to look after. rip off the odd amazon leaf and chop off a bit of vallis and thats it. just water changes and ferts after that.

 

[CluelessScot]

I would love to have a nice planted tank. maybe if i get a new tank ill go fully planted