Low maintenance planted tank ... 48" bulbs x2 or x3 over 55G?

Harry Muscle wrote:

But wouldn't a compact lamps hood like the one you mention put me
close to Medium-High lighting, getting ever closer to requireing CO2
and more work in order to keep things balanced?

I've always assumed that in order to have a farily low maintenance
tank I should be sticking with Low-Medium lighting.

Thanks,
Harry

The 130 watts of PC lighting over a 55 gallon tank would be just a
little over 2 WPG, so lighting-wise that is in the medium range. It
would increase the variety of plants that you could grow successfully
compared to the stock hood. It would also make the colors of everything
in the tank look more vivid.

The downside is that anything you do to increase light can also spur
the growth of algae. That is not to say that you will have an algae
problem, just that it will be more of an issue with any increase in
light.

If you want to scale back the amount of light, you might find a T5 or
even a 2 lamp T8 fixture that at least has a decent reflector. Then at
least you will get your money's worth from the electricity that goes
into firing up these lamps.

As far as adding CO2, it is not necessary to do so to keep things in
balance. Just imagine a natural pond under direct sunlight. That would
have even more light and yet it maintains a nice balance without added
CO2. We usually add CO2 to increase the rate of growth, because the CO2
level in the water is limiting in almost all cases with this amount of
light. If you are satisfied with the plant growth that you get then
this is a perfectly good condition to maintain.

George

--