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I'm ready to upgrade my lighting on my 55 gallon freshwater tank and can't decide what to get. I know I want a compact fluorescent strip light with two 65 watt lights that is 48 inches long. I found two that I am looking at and the links to the product pages are below. I'm really tempted by the cheaper one because it comes with moonlights which would be uuber cool, but the bulbs are 10,000K and Actinic. I know 6700K is ideal for planted tanks and that is what I have on my other planted tank. The other fixture comes with 6700K bulbs but has no moonlights and is $20 more! Anyone have suggestions or know of any other lights I may have missed?

http://www.bigalsonline.com/catalog/product.xml?product_id=29605;category_id=1875;pcid1=1843;pcid2=

http://www.bigalsonline.com/catalog/product.xml?product_id=29553;category_id=1875;pcid1=1843;pcid2=

You can probably have the best of both worlds. You can get the moonlights separately and, according to the company, they will mount on any aqualight. Check out this link from the company web site: http://www.esuweb.com/cardfile.asp?ItemNumber=53400&IDProductRelationship=258]http://www.esuweb.com/cardfile.asp?ItemNumber=53400&IDProductRelationship=258[/link]. And, they have them at Big Al's: [link=http://www.bigalsonline.com/catalog/product.xml?product_id=29533;category_id=1869;pcid1=1843;pcid2=. It looks like you can easily rig them on the 6700K light strip. And, they're pretty cheap, too!

I thought of doing something like that, but the one fixture costs $20 more to begin with and then I would need at least 2 moonlights at $25 each....that adds up to $70 extra spent just to get the fixture with the right kind of bulbs included. The bulbs seem to be the same price whether they are 6700K or the 10,000k/Actinic kind. I may try asking a few different stores to see if they will swap the bulbs for me. I was able to do that with my existing pc fixture, but I ordered it from a small company off E-bay...so they were probably more willing to help me out to get a sale.

Does anyone have experience with either of these two fixtures? I have heard of Coralife but not the other company...I think they are new. Also does anyone use a 10,000k/Actinic bulb on a freshwater planted tank? I might be willing to use the bulb if it is doable even if it is not ideal. Thanks

I tried a 50/50 compact fluorescent fixture on a freshwater planted tank once.......once.

Skipping the scientific reasoning, it looked bad and the plants didn't like it. . . at all.

I have a 48" coralife fixture over my 75 gallon tank, and the smaller fixture over my 29 gal. I couldn't be happier with them, and in my opinion are worth whatever extra money they cost, especially given into account their excellent customer service ( again,, my opinion).

For your large tank, tubes are the way to go, stick to 6700 K bulbs 'high noon', at least a double strip light.
If you have money to blow, add the moonlights but guaranteed you'll be wanting to do other more necessary things to your tank soon and you'll need the money for that.

Don't make the mistake I did at first..
Do the research with the members here before you decide on lighting.. The right setup now will benifit you as you won't need to upgrade later... I went and bought a single strip that only held a 15 watt tube at first, for a 29 gal. Got refunded luckily and put that towards a double strip light.. Good for easy plants.. But would add another double strip if I could afford it but flourite is next on the list... But that's on hold as all the contents will be transferred to a 30 gal long (36) inch L tank so I may need a 36 inch double tube strip (2 of em) or go custom somehow... See what I mean by 'you'll need the money' ?
Hope this helps, good luck !

The Amazon Nut...

I actually posted another thread about this in the planted tank board and based on the advice in both places I have already ordered the cheaper fixture a couple of days ago. I know the bulbs are not the best and I may decide to replace them immediately. If I have to do that it is okay because I found a site that has the right bulbs on sale for only $13 as compared to $28.

The draw of the moonlights and the cheaper price was too much for me. When I first got a 55 gallon I thought I would just be able to use 4 of the cheap 48" standard tubes. Dealing with my temporary shoplight hanging over the tank for about a month though made me realize I definitely need compact fluorescents regardless of the expense. I don't know how people do it with 4 standard tubes over the tank. With just 2 tubes I have to move the light everytime I need to do anything with the tank.

Thanks so much everyone for the advice.

People use 4 tubes so the tank has even light coverage..
If you stick your light right in the middle, the rear plants grow forward, and front plants lean backward.
Also the front and rear plants may suffer from lack of light.

Maybe your hi wattage bulbs will solve this problem.
Good luck !

[span class="edited"][Edited by DaFishMan 2004-08-27 17:19][/span]

The Amazon Nut...

A H Supply has great retrofit kits!