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Lighting help, What can I grow with these lights?

653 Views 3 Replies 3 Participants Last post by  Cole Sawyer
I have a 75 gallon tank, 21 inches tall, with a 48 inch 4x 54watt bulb florescent. Two bulbs are 6500k and two are 10,000k. I currently have red ludwiga, green cabomba, Java ferns, Anubis, and Java moss.

Obviously the Java moss will be so great, but will my other plants flourish under these conditions?

Should I get 2 more 6500k bulbs?

Or should I get different plants?

Or maybe someone could recommend a good quality light? I'm really putting a lot of time and money into this hobby, and I really enjoy it, but I'm struggling with my lighting situation
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Generally speaking, a 4 bulb T5 light fixture can/will grow almost anything you could want! And likely some things you don't want. I know several users on here will only use T5 bulbs ( @burr740 comes to mind). From what I remember, the (2) 6400 bulbs should be fine. What to put in the other 2 spots is above my pay grade as I am pretty much a LED guy.
I'm sure some of the experts will also chime in.
Depending on what kind of reflector the fixture has, you either have plenty of light for most anything, or way too much without raising the light 10-12 inches above the tank.

One reflector for all 4 bulbs is a lot less efficient that having individual reflectors for each bulb. Unless you are running CO2 and have experience with really high light, I hope it's the former!

As for the bulbs themselves, the 10,000Ks will grow plants alright, but most people find them too "cool" for a planted tank. In other words plants and fish dont look very good.

Personally I'd swap those out for some red/pink types like TrueLumen Flora, Zoo-med Flora Sun, Geishman Flora, pretty much any brand of "flora" bulb.
Thank you! It's a single reflector for all four bulbs. Hopefully that won't require extra CO2.
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