Well I've been dabbling with a planted tank for about 2 months now, starting off with 2x15watt fixtures that came with my 55 gallon. I'm not growing anything crazy, just some crypts, egeria, java moss, java fern, echino xingu, a red plant that was given to me and another unknown green stem plant. My goal is to get a nice fast growing forrest in my 55 without spending $200 to make it happen.
My lighting journey is as follows, I found an old shop light that could hold two 40 watt T12's and found that my plants were still only surviving and not growing and most recently I've purchased a cheap 132 watt shoplight system with 4 32 watt bulbs at 6500K and CRI of 79. The lighting is tremendously improved and I thought I had done well for myself but now I'm starting to come across all kinds of posts on plantedtank about up-light and reflectivity and how shop lights are ineffective because a lot of light is spread out at an angle that makes water penetration ineffective.
I guess my questions are:
1. Would 132 watts of shoplight be equivalent to a 2x55 watt AH supply system?
My main concern is money. My shoplight system cost me about $70 to complete while a 2x55 watt system is going to cost me at least $140. On the other hand if I have to pour 30 dollars and 10 hours of time into the shoplight system to bring it up to par well...
Can anyone throw some advice my way?
EDIT: I totally forgot to factor in the cost of constructing a hood + proper tools to do so for for the AHSupply kit and my new estimate is at least $180. I've decided to completely scrap that AHSupply idea as it is too costly. However, I've left the above text intact so my position is clear.
My new question is, how can I improve the efficacy of my shoplight system?
My lighting journey is as follows, I found an old shop light that could hold two 40 watt T12's and found that my plants were still only surviving and not growing and most recently I've purchased a cheap 132 watt shoplight system with 4 32 watt bulbs at 6500K and CRI of 79. The lighting is tremendously improved and I thought I had done well for myself but now I'm starting to come across all kinds of posts on plantedtank about up-light and reflectivity and how shop lights are ineffective because a lot of light is spread out at an angle that makes water penetration ineffective.
I guess my questions are:
1. Would 132 watts of shoplight be equivalent to a 2x55 watt AH supply system?
My main concern is money. My shoplight system cost me about $70 to complete while a 2x55 watt system is going to cost me at least $140. On the other hand if I have to pour 30 dollars and 10 hours of time into the shoplight system to bring it up to par well...
Can anyone throw some advice my way?
EDIT: I totally forgot to factor in the cost of constructing a hood + proper tools to do so for for the AHSupply kit and my new estimate is at least $180. I've decided to completely scrap that AHSupply idea as it is too costly. However, I've left the above text intact so my position is clear.
My new question is, how can I improve the efficacy of my shoplight system?