I think you need to have a hood that will accept 48", 40 watt fluorescent
lights. You can make a hood yourself. Spectrum is not all that important,
but the wattage is. Seems like you're shooting for 2 watts per gallon, so
you would need either 2 or 3 fluorescent tubes. I have a 70 gal with 5, 40
watt lights... CO2 injection becomes important at around 3 watts per gallon
and I have a pressurized system for my 70 gal. I got great plant growth
with my 37 gal/ 80 watt planted tank with DIY CO2. Your 55 gal is on the
edge of being too large for DIY CO2. Hope this helps?

DJay

"~Vicki ~" wrote in message
...
Thanks for the help with the lighting/plant problem. I know, now, that I
have way too little light for the plants. In my 55 gallon I have two
separate hoods that each have an 18" fluorescent bulb with the standard
two pins on each end. I have been searching for a replacement bulb, but
it seems that I would need something around 55W each. I can't find a
good site that explains exactly what each bulb is. Actinic, 10000K,
light spectrum??? I just want to have healthy plants and fish. Can
someone direct me to a site that would explain some of this, or just
give a quick rundown on what I could use?
Thanks for any help!



I just switched from a full spectrum 6,000K 15w bulb to a 10.000K 15w
deep reef bulb (package said for fresh water plants too) to see what
changes it will make on my planted tank. Prior to this change the low
light plants I have were doing beautifully. Actinic light is very blue
light and acts like a black light to bring out the color of corals in a
marine tank. It can also be used to bring out color in fish. Not sure
how well it would do on plants tho. I am doing a little research with
the new light to see how well it would do with low light corals in my
salt water tank. If my plants do well than I will try it with corals.

Vicki