What is my light level?

[Auslander]

My tank is lighted by 2 three foot long floruescent tubes. I don't know what wattage they are, but one is a whitish colour, and the other is slightly blueish. Would this constitute a low, medium or high level of light?, and what sort of plants would you recomend.

 

[Sanj]

What is your tank dimensions? 3ft tubes tend to be 30w if they are t8 tubes (european standard). So 60w for the whole tank. You want to be amining for at least 2wpg for low/moderate light plants. Reflectors will help .

 

[Auslander]

My tank dimensions are 1m * 40cm * 40cm. So according to what you said, my tank is at about 1.4 w/english gallon, assuming that the lights are 30 watts, and they are...I just checked. So there is not really enough light? Can I get higher wattage bulbs?

 

[Sanj]

Ok its about 35 Imp gallons and 42 US gallons.

the general wpg rule is based on us so you have 1.4 wpg. It is possible to grow low light plants like java fern, java moss. If you put reflectors on (if you dont have them already) it will direct more light downwards and may enable you to grow more plants.

 

[Auslander]

Can I get higher wattage tubes and how much will they be £'s. What colours should I get?

 

[Auslander]

The hood does have refectors.

 

[Sanj]

depends on what the hood is like.

if there is room you could get an arcadia starter unit. For plants since you already have a pinkish tube, I would get somthing like a arcadia freshwater tube. It is tri phospher and quite bright, good for photosynthesis and showing up the natural colours of fish.

You are probably looking at atroun £10-12 for another tube. The arcadia starter unit, Im not sure maybe £20.

90 watts would be good, just over 2wpg.

 

[Bol]

A couple of things I can add:

The closest "standard" size tank I could find to your dimentions is a 40US gallon "breeder" tank (which is 36" x 18" x 16", and your measurements are roughly 36x16x16).

Giving you roughly 1.5 watts per gallon (US), currently. In my opinion, this would be considered in the grey area oetween "low-light" and "medium light" (probably shading more towards "low"), depending on who you ask.

Almost all normal output (regular) fluorescent tubes are 10W per foot of length. You cannot buy tubes that will fit into your normal endcaps that will be significantly more than 30 watts.

It is possible to "overdrive" bulbs, but I can't help you much with that. A search might bring up some info.

One last piece of advice, a caution: as you approach 2 watts per gallon, you may find that you'll want/need to inject CO2, or have problems with both plant growth and algae. Might want to research that before upgrading your lights.

 

[Auslander]

Cheers for your help guys.