# Lighting Fixture Question-What to purchase?



## Maty (Oct 17, 2009)

Hello,

I've purchased a 40 gallon breeder tank several months ago to start a heavily planted tank. I haven't really started anything. I bought a tank stand yesterday and now wanting to buy a light fixture.

I'm looking for:
1. A light fixture that I can hang on the ceiling. 
2. About 130 Watts (give or take, I'm aiming for 3W/g)
3. T5 light fixture?? (any suggestions for any other fixtures are welcome)

I was looking at the BigAls online store and saw this.
*Aquatic Life 4X39W T5 Light Fixture W/4-LED Lunar Lights - 36"*
I'm sure this light fixture is meant for a salt water tank. Can't I use it for a fresh water planted tank?? I would be able to control each individual light bulb in the fixture. Does that mean I can keep 2 bulbs on only??

Can some one please point me the right direction?

Thank you


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

You could use that fixture, but it's a lot of light for a shallow planted tank. You could probably do a good two bulb T5HO fixture and suspend it higher up to cover the whole tank and still have a lot of light to grow just about anything.


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## Mr Fishies (Sep 21, 2007)

Ameek is on the money here, you'd be dumping a ton of light on a shallow tank. High light does not necessarily make it easy to grow nice looking plants, it does drive up the rate that plants use CO2 and nutrients to grow and if you don't keep things balanced and stable and your plants well fed it will only lead to problems...and a thinner wallet.

If you did manage to get things growing nicely with a 4 bulb fixture, you'd be trimming a 40G breeder almost daily unless you had rosette, rhizome type plants that don't need high light for the most part. If it were my choice, the Aquatic life 2x39W costs less than half and if you really want 4 bulbs in the future, the fixtures can be linked...and you'd still be ~$100 less than the fixture you're looking at.

BTW: You're looking at almost 4WPG, and the WPG rule is no longer a reliable method when you consider the difference in efficiency between T12 (the original standard for the WPG), T8, Compact Fluorescent and T5, especially when you wrap the bulbs with good reflectors.

http://gtaaquaria.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4559


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## By-The-Lake (Nov 21, 2008)

Since you already got some helpful suggestions I attached a link to a site with really good general explanations to help make things a little clearer and some info that might help you with the decision of whether to stay low-tech or go high-tech.

By the way, welcome to GTAA!

http://www.sudeepmandal.com/hobbies/planted-aquarium/low-tech-planted-tank-guide/


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