[Mikers]

I am interested in setting up a 90 gallon south-american tank with angelfish, tetras and catfish. I am probably going to use fine white sand for a substrate, and was hoping to keep mainly vallisneria, some amazon sword plants, possibly some E. tenelleus (the micro swords I think they're called) and maybe some cabomba.

I dont want to add CO2 or dose with fertilizer. I just want the plants, fish and enough light to keep the plants happy, if possible.

My question is: how much light WILL the plants require?

I was thinking of getting a Current USA 2x54W T5HO fixture. Will that be enough?

Thanks a lot!

 

[Tex Gal]

How deep is your tank? I think that fixture will probably work as it's T5HO.

 

[gravy9]

If you're having T5HO, you'll be hving a lot of light for a tank where you're not feeding CO2 or fetrilizer. You might end up with a lot of algae. You might want to use just T5 or T8s.

 

[Mikers]

It's 24" deep/tall

 

[Tex Gal]

It's a tall tank. Can you only use one of the T5HO's? Does the fixture have 2 switches? That way if you ever want to go high tech, high light you could switch the other on and add the extra equipment.

 

[Mikers]

Even without two swtiches, couldn't I just remove one bulb?

So one T5HO bulb will be enough for those plants I want to keep?

 

[Tex Gal]

Not sure you could remove a bulb. I think it might be an electrical hazzard. Maybe have a dead bulb in there. Yes I think for your plant list one would work well.

 

[Mikers]

Thank you very much . I will look further into that single bulb.