# thinking of planting tank



## killfishygo (Jan 13, 2004)

I'm thinking of planting my 55 gal tank, I was wondering would this setup be too much light for my tank? see link below
http://www.aquatraders.com/index.asp?PageA...WPROD&ProdID=25

or would i be better off with this one
http://www.aquatraders.com/index.asp?PageA...WPROD&ProdID=10

Also, would a co2 system be absolutely necessary for either one? or could i survive without it...

Thanks


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## elTwitcho (Jun 22, 2004)

The 48 inch one will be much better. However, the blue bulbs will need to be switched out with proper daylight bulbs to be useful. Also, with that much lighting you will absolutely need CO2. If you don't want to do CO2, aim for 110 watts of total lighting.


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## killfishygo (Jan 13, 2004)

elTwitcho said:


> The 48 inch one will be much better. However, the blue bulbs will need to be switched out with proper daylight bulbs to be useful. Also, with that much lighting you will absolutely need CO2. If you don't want to do CO2, aim for 110 watts of total lighting.
> [snapback]1030375[/snapback]​


would i need co2 for the 190 watt lights?


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## elTwitcho (Jun 22, 2004)

Yep, since those are just as bright, only shorter.

If you don't want CO2, you don't need bright lights. It's like this, plants grow at a rate limitted by what they have the least of. So if you have enough light and fertilizer but not enough CO2, they will only grow until they've used up the CO2. Then they stop. Increasing the light so it's 10 times brighter and dumping in twice as much fertilizer won't make them grow any faster either, because plants are limitted by whatever they use up first. If you're stuck on the idea of bright lights, you need to get CO2 or you will definately have algae issues and ph issues. If you don't want to muck around with CO2 injection, more light is only going to make things worse.


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## killfishygo (Jan 13, 2004)

alright, thanks a lot for the info


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## hiphopn (Feb 10, 2005)

i have those exact lights and i like em, but i switched out all the bulbs..


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