I am new to live plants and I would like some help on deciding what LEDs I should be looking at as far as lighting for my 60g Shrimp tank with live plants. The plants that are going to be in the tank are Dwarf Hair Grass and some Cabomba and Water Lily. My tank dimensions are 48L x 24H x 12W. Any suggestions with links would be greatly appreciated for this new comer to live plants. Many thanks in advance.
I sent this pm to someone earlier and thought that I should go ahead and post it here aswell. That way people can get an idea of what I have and what I am looking for.
Here is some info specifically about my wants for this particular tank. I would not be opposed to changing things in the tank as long as it would still fit in with what I want out of this tank. I do value peoples opinions and would be interested in hearing what you have to say. So with that in mind I will try to be as specific as possible when I talk to you about what I am looking for when it come to this tank. I think that would be the easiest way for me to gain your knowledge about what I am envisioning. So I do apologies for the lengthy post, and all the questions but for me this is the easiest way for me to learn other than seeing things first hand.
My personal preference is to not have a heavily planted (I personally don't like the Jungle look, I want to be able to watch my shrimp) I do plan on having some driftwood in this tank so keep that in mind also. This is my first time venturing into live plants so simple and easy along with being appealing is what I want.
Tank Dimensions - it is a 60 gallon 48"L x 24"H x 12"W
So keeping in mind that simplicity is key my vision for this particular tank is to have some nice appealing plants that go across the entire back of the tank medium to tall in height. Preferably 1 species (which is why I went with the Cabomba) and some clumps of grass that would stand up that are spread out randomly in the tank, which is why I was thinking dwarf hair grass (like 6 to 8 clumps, debating on a carpet but I do not want thick carpeting if I go that route). For the moss on the driftwood I was thinking of going with either Christmas Moss or Fire Moss not sure which would look better I like the look of both to be honest. The gravel you see in the pic is what I have to work with as I have over 300 shrimp in this tank and it would be really difficult to change out the substrate to something better accommodating for plants.
I do have Flourish,Flourish Excel, and Flourish Tabs. I do not plan on going with Co2 at this time.
I know that my current lighting is not good for plants. It is the standard fluorescent lighting you get when you purchase a kit from petsmart. Here is a link to the kit I have http://www.petsmart.com/product/inde...465&lmdn=Brand. The bulbs are Marineland Natural Daylight 18 inches long 21k.
I do not want to use the hoods that are on this tank. I will go with either no top at all and just a light fixture or a glass/plexi top and sit the lighting on top of it. I do not want to hang anything as this is in my living room and it is a rather big tank and stand. If it was in its own room I would not mind hanging lights from the ceiling.
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