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Alright, so the 90g is coming tomorrow. I'm going to order lighting this weekend, so I would like some input. At this point, I'm looking at a Coralife 48" Aqualight. For those who aren't familiar with the setup, its got 2x65watt 6700K compact flourescent bulbs. However, I plan on swapping out 1 6700K with a 10000K bulb. So that'll put me at 130 watts over a 90g, which doesn't seem like much.

Now, the other option is the 4x65watt 6700K fixture. Granted, it's nearly double the cost of what I mentioned above, so I will need to weigh my decision heavily. Again, I will probably swap out 2 of the 4 bulbs with 10000K.

With that said, which would you choose. I'm not going for a full blown planted tank, per say. I DO want a fair amount of plants though!

I am no plant expert...but also shopping for lights, only for smaller tanks.

I would get the 4x65w because you would have almost 3wpg and would have a better selection of plants. With the first fixture you would be limited to crypts, java fern and anubias, and maybe some stem plants, but they wouldn't look their greatest and would thrive better with 2.8wpg from the second choice.

It may be double the cost, but if you can get it, I would. It will be worth it in the end.



*Kristin*

Mike,

It is not the amount of plants that should drive your decision, it is the species of plants.

If you like to have only low light plants like Anubias, fern, and crypts then the first unit might do the trick. If you want some plants that require medium light then you need the other unit.

Hope this helps,

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

Is there a site that could help me out-pics, requirements, etc? I'm going to pick up Amano's 3 books tomorrow afternoon, so I'll post a list of what I like!

Mike,

A good one to start is [link=The Tropica Website]http://www.tropica.com" style="COLOR: #ff6633[/link].

When you know the name of a plant you are interested in google it and skim through the results.

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club