(Jim Seidman) wrote in message . com...
"t" wrote in message . com...
I'm running a 125-gallon with 4 F25T8s on an electronic ballast, and
am having great success growing a variety of plants. No CO2 injection,
and I'm still pruning the faster-growing ones at least once a week.

The real fast growers are Limnophila sessiliflora and Vallisneria
spiralis. Bacopa monnieri is growly slowly but fine. Echinodorus
tenellus is slowly spreading. Floating Ceratopteris pteridoides does
great. Of course Christmas moss and Anubias have plenty of light.

I've read a number of articles that argue pretty compellingly that
larger tanks need fewer watts per gallon than smaller thanks.
Certainly my own experience seems to back that up. I don't think you
need to consider this a "Low, LOW light" setup.

- Jim

I agree, I have 3x32W T8 tubes with electronic ballast over my 90
gallon tank making it just over 1WPG. It's growing all the plants you
mentioned quite nicely with nothing more than a fish load and rich
substrate. My main suggestion would be to use a rich substrate, I used
Flourite with a little peat moss and crushed flourish tabs as the
first layer, the rest was just flourite topped with regular gravel to
change the color a little. The statement about larger tanks needing
less WPG makes sense as the height changes little when you get into
the larger tanks, spread is more of a concern IMO, reason why I
decided to use 3xT8 tubes rather than 2x55w CFs. I also prefer the
option to mix different bulbs together with more tubes. I would choose
CFs if I were going with higher WPG but for a low light tank such as
yours I would probably start with 4xT8 tubes, makes it much cheaper
and will give you a better spread. Invest in CO2 when you want to
spend the extra cash IMO.

Here's a pic of my 90g:
http://67.89.4.174/aqua/photos/09_2003/img_0021s.jpg

Hope that helps
Giancarlo Podio