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I am really lost on lighting.
I know the bulbs I have now arent that great and seeing as this was a SW tank when I got it I am not even sure if the lights I have should be used with freshwater fish and plants.
My tank is a 55 gallon long.
I would like a bulb that will work for both lower light plants and also be ok for some higher light plants.
Is there such a thing?
If someone could tell me exactly what to ask for when I go to the fish store i would appreciate it.
I trust your alls input way more than the workers at the store as most there havent a clue and only try to sell you the most expensive thing they can.
Thanks for your help.
Todd

Hi,
What wattage are the bulbs you have now? Also do they have a k or temperature rating on them? Generally speaking if you want to keep higher light plants you will need at least about 2 - 3 watts per gallon, so you should shoot for about 150 watts in a combination of bulbs. Lower light plants will grow ok in higher light, they could be planted underneath shady decorations or towards the ends of the tank and keep the higher light ones in the middle. The k rating should be at least 6500 or so, or you can use a combination of lower (4000) and higher (10000) k rating bulbs. Lower will be a yellower color and higher more blue. The main thing is to have enough light which usually means having enough bulbs.

You can grow low light plants in high light but your problem is algae. The low light plants won't use enough of the light and other nutrients in the tank so if you plant with lots of low light plants and only 1 or 2 high light in a tank with lots of light your likely to end up with lots of algae. Also tanks over around 2wpg are hard to balance without co2 injection. Co2 becomes the limiting factor for growth and without enough of the it the plants don't grow fast enough to outcompete the algae. Again you end up with little plant growth and lots of algae. It's best to either go all out with high light, co2, and lots of plants or stick to the low-med light plants unless you really know what your doing. The more light you put on the tank the harder it is to balance the tank so the plants grow and algae doesn't.

A good fairly cheap suggestion for a 55g is to get a 2 bulb 48" NO fluorescent fixture. That's normal output straight tubes and will give you 80w or a little under medium light so you avoid needing co2 while still growing a fair variety of plants. You can either get one for aquariums for around $50-$80 or a shoplight fixture for only about $20 or less. Problem with shoplight fixtures is that they don't reflect light into the tank very well. They are designed to spread the light across a large area so aren't as efficient but cheap. Put some daylight or full spectrum bulbs in it. These are cheapest from a hardware store or if you can't find them bulbs sold for aquarium plants will work. They just cost 2-3times more for no good reason. If in doubt look for a kelvin rating of over 6500k on the package or bulb to be sure your getting a full spectrum bulb. Avoid saltwater bulbs that say actinic or over 10,000k on them.

If you want to get into using co2 and having a higher light heavily planted tank you can either add another 2 bulb NO fixture when your ready(may require moving a light to open the tank because of width) or get a more concentrated light source such as a power compact fixture or T5s. PC is more common for freshwater tanks. It will cost you considerably more than NO but you can easily get up to and over 4wpg using 4 bulbs which is high light or stay around the medium light range with (2) 55-65w bulbs. There are also 96w bulbs but 55-65w pc bulbs set end to end fit perfectly on a 48" tank.

Right on sham, algae is definitely a consideration. I like to use the lowest lights I can that will still sustain my plants, anything more than that is risky.