Need Advice....New to planted tanks

[chtaylor26]

I have a 55 gal tank and I just put in 4 plants to start:

1. Water sprite

2. Anubias Nana

3. Bacopa Caroliniana

4. Pervensis ( I was told)

I also put in half a dozen danios and half a dozen golden barbs.

For lighting I have 2 18" 17 watt lamps. I am pretty positive I need more light as I would like to get more involved on the plant side of things but I do not know how much I need. What size( in watts) of light fixture should I buy? does anyone have a fixture for sale? Also any pruning tips would be great.

[werner]

The amount of light you want will depend on what kind of plants you will be growing, and whether or not you will be adding CO₂

For moderate lighting, you could try something like this: Coralife 96W fixture. This should be fine for the plants you have now.

If you want to go for high lighting, there's a 2 x 96W fixture. You would need CO₂ addition and a good fertilizer regime with this much light, but you should be able to grow pretty much any plant species you want (low carpet plants, red plants, etc.)

Here's a good article on light: Planted Tank Beginner Basics

Not sure about "Pervensis" is either. Is it a sword plant? There's an Echinodorus peruensis, also known as E. parviflorus.

[fleshgear]

all of my tanks have live plants in them, some tanks have high light. the highest is 4wpg it is a 46 gallon tank. on the high light tanks i have DIY c02. i have no fertilizer regime i dont fertilize at all. a few of the plants have root tabs under them, like the big sword plants. i even have red plants that are red and thriving. i read that hard water has lots of micro nutrients in it, i used to fertilize the recommended doses, iron, trace elements, comprehensive supplement. dosing with iron just got too expensive that was the main reason for stopping that. and since then i have not really noticed a difference. i do a weekly 30% water change and i almost never vacuum the gravel i dont know if that makes a difference or not. if i could find a cheaper method of fertilizing i would probably do it.

[chtaylor26]

Thanks for the advice I reallly do appreciate it!

[firestorm]

The coralife fixtures are pretty good, and slightly cheaper than the hagens. But I honestly like the hagen glo T5HO light fixtures better, they don't get as hot as the coralifes, and are easier to mount.....they actually come with mounting kits. But you will be spending a little more money on the hagens. Go to Gold's aquariums for lighting fixtures, much cheaper than other places around town. I bought most of my equip from there. I would go with around medium lighting, so you will want at least 100wts of light on your tank. Is your tank a 3ft long? If it is then go for the 36" long light fixtures. It will give you the amount of light you will need, and double bulb can be better if wanting more of medium-high lights.