Mobile Bay Reef Keepers

I have spent a good bit of time looking through this site and I found an entry concerning lighting for a heavy planted fresh water tank. Now I can't find it. Any idea where to find it?

My son has a planted 30 galllon tank fresh water with plants. He needs better lights. The hard part is that it is in a living room with a very nice stand and canopy and the canopy will only accept an 18 in light fixture. The tank is 24 inches deep.

Any suggestions?

Thank you in advance.

Is there any particular reason you want to increase the lighting? You may actually be happier sticking with what you have. For example, are you wanting more demanding plants or are the current plants getting too thick? Higher lighting means a higher demand for nutrients and more maintenance to keep up (including trimming). Basically, there is a maximum that, for most people, I don't recommend exceeding (while I hate the "watts per gallon" rule, it is often stated not to exceed 2.5 wpg) a certain limit, since beyond that, you'll require carbon dioxide injection and lots of fertilizers. In any case, I think 3-4 daylight high-output T5 lamps (24 watt, 24 inch lamps) with individual reflectors should do the trick to give you a bit of extra intensity. You'd have to ditch the hood, however. You may want to consider a glass top to do away with the current hood. If you wanted to push it a bit further, a single 150w halide lamp mounted a reasonable distance would also provide a similar amount of light, possibly more, with less bulbs.

The plants in it just don't seem to be getting enough light.http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=6 ... 1342489753

This is an older picture of my sons aquarium. None of the plants were growing. All started to brown. They are doing much better in his 10 gal breeder tank, but he would like his best plants in his 30 gal.

We are putting some thought into what you said. Thanks for the help.

http://www.expresslightbulbs.com/aquari ... -p-24.html
how about trying your own idea? i remember in a previous post you refered to this bulb? its designed for a planted aquarium...