lighting ques

If you have a sump are you suppose to figure that in the watts per gallon? say you want 1 wpg and have a 60 gallon tank with 60 watts of light but you also have a 20 gallon sump should the sump gallons be excluded or included in this?

no each tank needs lighting to it's size sump or tank so a 60 gal would be 60W the 20 gal sump would need it own light and they can be differant WPG depending on if you want plants in your sump.

no. do you plan on growing plants in the sump?

no not gonna have any plants in the sump so i wont put any light to the sump then

nope you don't need a light on your sump just the tank where your plants will be. on a 60g with just 1 wpg I would stick to the different type of anbuis,java ferns,and cryptocoryne speicies.

The only reason people really add lights above their sump is to see. Most of them located under the main tank or built into the stand (some dark place) $20 light fixture and $2 bulb at HomeDepot is the route I would take just so I could see during maintenance

Be careful on the WPG rule. That rule was originally intended for T-12 lighting (I think). With T-8's, T-5's, and especially T5HO's 1 WPG may give you medium to high light which would require CO2 injection and fertilizers or you will have tons of algae. I have 2 T5NO (normal output) bulbs over my 55 gallon tank. They are rated at 28 watts a piece (56 watts total) and that puts my tank at medium light. You could use the WPG rule with T-8's and I would shoot for 1 to 1.5 WPG to grow low light plants.

SemperFish wrote:

Be careful on the WPG rule. That rule was originally intended for T-12 lighting (I think). With T-8's, T-5's, and especially T5HO's 1 WPG may give you medium to high light which would require CO2 injection and fertilizers or you will have tons of algae. I have 2 T5NO (normal output) bulbs over my 55 gallon tank. They are rated at 28 watts a piece (56 watts total) and that puts my tank at medium light. You could use the WPG rule with T-8's and I would shoot for 1 to 1.5 WPG to grow low light plants.

I agree with SemperFish.

The best thing to do is post some specifics about what you're looking for (i.e. low maintenanance, no ferts, no co2, etc...) and the planted tank hobbyists can give you good guide lines.

On my 60g, I have a 4' t5 double bulb fixture, and I get good growth from my plants with no co2 and no ferts. On my 30g, I use a 24" double bulb t5HO (with one actinic bulb!) and get good growth so far.

Yes I agree with the above statements.

yep those boys know what they are talkin about ;)

SemperFish wrote:

Be careful on the WPG rule. That rule was originally intended for T-12 lighting (I think). With T-8's, T-5's, and especially T5HO's 1 WPG may give you medium to high light which would require CO2 injection and fertilizers or you will have tons of algae. I have 2 T5NO (normal output) bulbs over my 55 gallon tank. They are rated at 28 watts a piece (56 watts total) and that puts my tank at medium light. You could use the WPG rule with T-8's and I would shoot for 1 to 1.5 WPG to grow low light plants.

This is one post I'll have to file away! Billin Va.