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Lighting small tank!!! same rules as usual?



Hi all,
Ok I have been hooked on aquariums for the last 18 months or so. I now have
5 tropical tanks (8-120 gallons) I have one heavily planted 65 but I want
to slowly change them all over to various style plant tanks including my
120g  discus tank.

My question is.........
I have a 30 litre = 8 gallon tank, dimensions 46x25x30cm. The tank
currently houses a breeding pair of blue Rams. I would like to turn this
into a 'plant' tank. The tank is currently lit with a 2 foot 6500k fluro
tube. This is aproximately 2 watts per gallon. Due to the tanks small
volume surely it needs more light? lets say 2 tubes? this would give about4
watts per gallon which in this case would not be a very bright tank. Maybe
I should stick with 1 tube and grow low light plants. Any ideas much
appreciated.

Then again on my 48x24x24 discus tank 160 watts of fluro light would be
moderate but only 1.2 watts/gallon..

What I am saying is that surely the watts/gallon rule is very rough as a
larger tank will need less watts per gallon to acheive the same light
intensity?

Awaiting your much appreciated response.

Mr ice-cream head.

just joking,

Daniel Green
bevgreen at cygnus_uwa.edu.au