Can anyone give me a good website to learn about lighting a tank effectively? I would like to populate my tank with low light plants so I don't need anything major, but I have no clue where to start, what I am looking for, or reasonable prices. My hood currently has one stock bulb, and I don't plan on upgrading from one anytime soon. But can I replace the bulb with something more productive? My understanding is that brown algae forms from lack of appropriate lighting, and my tank is just starting to show signs of this. I am going on a trip this weekend to pick up some driftwood, it will take me about a week to sterilize it and probably some time soaking to get it to sink, after I have everything set up I am ready to start planting before I add any more fish. Any information you may have would be great. Thx again

You should be looking for a higher K value bulb.

Something like 10,000K.

I agree 6500 k is a broad spectrum bulb. A good place to start looking for lighting is www.ahsupply.com

Okay, so I have a freshwater tank, and I am looking at these two bulbs. Any opinions?

Zoo Med Reef Sun 50/50 Bulbs
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* 50/50 combination of 6500K trichromatic daylight phosphor and actinic 420 phosphor in the same lamp
* Ideal for all marine aquariums
* Also works well for reef aquariums, African cichlids, and discus fish
* Offered in a variety of sizes


Zoo Med Ocean Sun 10,000K Bulbs
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* 10,000K high-intensity lamp
* Ideal for all marine aquariums, reef aquariums, and fresh water aquariums where a deep water effect is desired
* Strong emissions in the blue spectrum simulate deeper ocean environments
* Offered in a variety of sizes

I've used both the 6500 and 10,000 and I prefer the 10,000. I guess it is a preference thing.

What are the watts of the bulbs?

I just purchased a lighted hood that can hold up to 2 40 W bulbs, I decided to wait to purchase the bulbs until it comes in so that I can balance it evenly. 2 40W would be major overkill I think. Anyone have any ideas on bulbs? Thx

Gah. You guys make my lighting setups seem gimpy.

For low light plants, I've had just fine luck using the no frills, get 'em at the hardware store GE 5000k "Sunlight" bulbs. I have water sprite, marimo balls and a big honkin peace lilly growing like mad under one of those.

The plants I have that don't grow all that great with lower light gets one 5000k bulb and one old UVB bulb from one of the turtle enclosures. So far it's worked just fine.

It doesn't look nearly as pretty as some of the dedicated fancy rigs I've seen, but the dual 4ft fluorescent ballasts cost 8 bucks wired at lowes.

I bought this cheap hartz duel reflector hood electrical outlet on ebay for like 8 bucks. My husband (who knows how to do electrical work) will detach it from the cheap hartz frame and install it into my stock hood since they are the exact same length. Its nice having someone handy around, otherwise I would have wound up paying 100 bucks or so, which after the setup, I just can't afford atm. Soon we will be delving into making our own tanks, thats gonna take a lot of practice, but at least if you screw up you can dry it, strip off the silicone and try again without buying new materials.

80w is 4wpg which is high light. You should be fine with 2 20w light bulbs.

Bulbs to check out.