Lighting options for 30gal cube - El Natural

HoldingWine · 10-24-2009, 07:08 PM

I was given a 30 gallon cube aquarium a few months ago. I'm finally going to set it up as a NPT and had a few questions regarding the lighting.

I have a Coralife 24" T-5 Aqualight laying around. The bulbs are 14 watts each (normal output) with one being a 6700K and the other a full spectrum. I'm considering buying another one of these strip lights. I would also replace the bulbs (with one cool white and one 'plant' bulb as suggested in Ms. Walstad's book) in the older unit since they are almost a year and half old.

How does this sound on lighting? The wattage would be 56 watts of T-5 normal output in total. The tank is 18 inches tall and about 20 inches long and wide, so I don't believe this amount of light would be overkill, correct?

Edit: I forgot to mention that the aquarium sits beside a west facing window. Because of its location, it receives no direct sunlight and little indirect sunlight.

dwalstad · 10-25-2009, 04:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HoldingWine

The wattage would be 56 watts of T-5 normal output in total. The tank is 18 inches tall and about 20 inches long and wide, so I don't believe this amount of light would be overkill, correct?

The aquarium sits beside a west facing window. Because of its location, it receives no direct sunlight and little indirect sunlight.

Your lighting plan sounds reasonable, certainly not overkill!