Lighting for a non-CO2 75 gallon tank?

[Surreal65]

Would 2x54w T5HO be adequate lighting for a 75 gallon tank without CO2?

I've read tons of posts, but can't seem to find an answer. I'm concerned that 2 T5 bulbs would be too much light and result in algae. I plan on adding pressurized CO2, but not for another 6 months or so.

I don't plan on keeping any fancy plants, mainly crypts, ferns, vals and hygro.

Thanks for any comments.

 

[epond83]

That will be a decent amount of light, you may have algae problems until you set up CO2

 

[Surreal65]

Thanks for the input. Do you think that running just one T5 bulb would be enough?

 

[epond83]

i've never had T5's so i don't know for sure, but one would probably be enough light output for low light plants, however you might have to play with the hight of the unit to get a good spread on the substrate, and if you get too high then the amount of light weekens... tricky kinda thing.

I'm currently trying to learn how much spread a T5 gives at certain hieghts with a Tek reflector.

 

[blamejames]

you want so many watts/gallon that is what i have always been told and i think it is somewhere around 2-4 watts/gallon. I could be wrong about this. I am using the glo setup 2x54 on a 90 gallon and it works like a champ. But you should definitely get some sort of CO2 going because you wont see a lot of growth until you add that!

 

[epond83]

watts/gallon is really only effective for T12 anything else it only gives an esimation. T8's put out a little more light per watt and T5's put out a ton more light per watt. So a 75 with 2wpg of T5 is going to be a lot brighter then a 75 with 2wpg of T-12.

 

[pateceramics]

DIY CO2 isn't really that hard. I've got a wesson vegetable oil bottle with a hole in the cap and a little red valve that fits airline tubing glued into the hole with airplane glue/superglue. The tubing goes into a diffuser in the tank, or you can clip it to the intake for your filter so the bubbles get sucked into the filter and nicely frothed around in there. For a 48 ounce bottle I add 1/2 teaspoon of yeast from the grocery store, a half cup of sugar and fill the bottle most of the rest of the way with room temp water. Cap it. Shake it. Attach the tube. Wait a few hours. If no bubbles are coming out, adjust how deep in the tank the end of the tube is. (If it's too deep the water pressure is greater than the CO2 pressure). Instant happy plants! I mix up a fresh batch of yeasty sugar water once a week when I do a water change.

 

[kerryhomes]

According to my advice You have the essential equipments for you aquarium,35 liter tank is not big enough, though it is enough for the guppies. Almost all catfish grow more than 12''. And also they will eat all your fries before it starts swimming. So keep away from Catfish.
Another thing you can add is Neon tetras along with your fish .

 

[prsturm]

In my experience, 1.5 WPG will do fine, especially with T5s. You need only worry about CO2 injection at very high light levels. Providing more CO2 to a low-light situation will just waste sugar, since the plants aren't demanding that much CO2 to begin with. A basic iron and trace mineral supplement will supply what you need. A slow-growing tank is much better to manage than a fast growing one, anyway.

As an example, I put a Cabomba (medium to high light requirements) in my 20 gallon tank with 28 watts of T5 lighting. In 10 days, it has doubled in size. I use an enriched substrate as well. So if you can't provide massive lighting, you can provide the other key ingredients, and the plants will use those up according to light stimulation. If you're not dealing with insanely deep tanks, T5s produce more lumens per watt, and get enough depth penetration. I have no CO2 supplementation.

Personally, I'm about to upgrade to T2 lights, and get even more bang for the cheap buck!

 

[IThinkTherefore]

(this question is from 2009, guys xP)