# First Planted tank



## Sacrifice (Sep 24, 2006)

Ok guys just have a few quick questions about lighting for a 30g Long 36"x12" planted tank.

I dont wanna go all out, just some of the beginner plants.

So here it goes.

1.) What is the correct Kelvin level for plants.....10,000 or 6700 are the two that Im seeing.

2.) Could i use a 30" PC light pushing 65 Watts without using Co2? Or would I be better using a light that gives me around 1.5 wpg?

3.) Which brand have you had better luck with...Coralife or Current USA?

Thanks a million my friends,

Sacrifice


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## JoeDizzleMPLS (Nov 5, 2007)

6700k... if you're not planning on running co2, i would just use some cheap shop lights and push for 1.5 wpg or slightly less... no sense in dropping a bunch of loot on a light fixture from coralife or current when you could buy basically the same thing at home depot for cheap


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## Trigga (Jul 1, 2006)

^agreed that's what I did.. $30 bucks us for a 80 watt shop light and bulbs.. I run it on my 75 and my plants are thriving


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## Us And Them (Dec 4, 2008)

Trigga said:


> ^agreed that's what I did.. $30 bucks us for a 80 watt shop light and bulbs.. I run it on my 75 and my plants are thriving


Shop Lights work Awesome for Growing Green Plants but I cant Say I've used them on my fish
tank hehehe.


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## JoeDizzleMPLS (Nov 5, 2007)

CrazeeJon said:


> ^agreed that's what I did.. $30 bucks us for a 80 watt shop light and bulbs.. I run it on my 75 and my plants are thriving


Shop Lights work Awesome for Growing Green Plants but I cant Say I've used them on my fish
tank hehehe.

[/quote]
so you must grow tomatoes indoors year round, huh?









yeah, the shop lights work great... i remember when i first started out with plants and i went out and dropped over $100 on a 48" dual strip fluorescent fixture and then i bought the 48" bulbs from my lfs, i think it ended up being over $150 when all was said and done... i now have two 48" dual strip shop lights that i bought from home depot built into my canopy over my 75 gallon, with bulbs from home depot, and i know i spent less than $50 total.

now this works great for low light/low tech setups, but if you are going to do pressurized co2, i would recommend going with either t5 ho or some power compacts.


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## Sacrifice (Sep 24, 2006)

Thanks everyone. Im gonna run by Home Depot this week and see what I can find. I'm just worried about not being able to find a decent output with a 36" shop light.


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## JoeDizzleMPLS (Nov 5, 2007)

a dual strip 36" shop light or even 2 single strip lights will provide plenty of light for low light plants such as crypts, java fern, anubias, java moss, and plenty others....


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