Planted Tank - Lighting Question

fishamajig

Member
I've posted this question on numerous freshwater sites and nobody is answering my question. My husband posts on this form all the time and tells me it's the best. Please help me
I have a 55G planted freshwater tank and I need to buy lighting. I'm looking at a Jebo power compact 4x65W fixture with 2 10000K bulbs and 2 actinic bulbs and 4 LED moonlights. I'm wondering if 1) this is too much lighting for a 55G tank (it would be approx 4.7W per gallon) 2) if actinic bulbs are ok for a planted tank 3) if 6700K bulbs would be better than 10000K bulbs.
Keep in mind that this is a planted freshwater discus tank.
:help:
 

donahue

Member
im pretty sure that coralife makes hoods specifically for freshwater. What difference is there between the cichlid and an Angelfish?
 

fishamajig

Member
my only concern with the lower kelvin bulbs is i have heard that they are very yellow but the 10000k bulbs are a nice bright white? do you know if there is any truth to this?:notsure:
 

007

Active Member
thats exactly right . . . gotta remember that yellow is normal and more natural in a freshwater tank.
 

zev

Member
I began with freshwater planted tanks, the Lighting is great and will be considered a medium to high light situation. Actinic is not really needed but it can not hurt anything. What plants will you be having?
 
I have used the atinic bulbs on my freshwater 125g planted tank. As far as the plants go the atinic wont affect them in any way. But i have seen the atinic bulbs cause unwanted algae growth. In my tank, when the atinic bulbs were part of the lighting setup there was an outbreak of black hairy algae tufts. When I removed the atinic lights from the system the black algae died off and went away. Now i may have had some other strange factors involved but that has just been my experience.
 

crazyfrog

Member
We have a 75g planted freshwater and we LOVE our actinic bulbs. We have it on a similar schedule to the reef-a couple hours of just actinic just before all lights out. We also have the black hair algae but we're looking for a natural looking aquarium so its not a problem. About every 6 months or so, we take out all the rocks and scrub the hair algae off.
 
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