Harry Muscle wrote:

In my quest to finally get my 55G planted tank up and running, I'm
going to shell out the cash and just buy the hood that maches my
All-Glass tank instead of making one. However, I'm not sure if I
should choose the twin tube (2 x 48" T8 tubes with electronic ballast)
or the triple tube (3 x 48" T8 tubes with electronic ballast) strip
light.

I would like to achieve a fairly low maintenance tank (ie: prune once
every month or two). I won't be using any CO2, however, I was
planning on using Excel and fertilizers on a regular basis. I'm
perfectly happy sticking to low and medium light plants but I
definately want enough growth to not get much algea.

But I can't decided on how much lighting. If I go with 2 bulbs I get
1.45wpg (counting 40 watts per bulb ... I know they only use 32 watts,
but they are equivalent to a 40 watt T12 bulb in light output which is
what was around when the wpg rule first started, so I'm assuming
counting them as 40 watt bulbs makes more sense). However, is 1.45
wpg a little on the low side?

If I go with three bulbs I get 2.18wpg (again counting 40 watts per
bulb), which makes me think that I might have to start using CO2 in
order to avoid problems in the long term.

So what would you recommend?

Thanks,
Harry

Those hoods are quite inefficient, especially the three tube models. If
you consider that much of the light is trapped above the lamps or
bouncing between the lamps, you can see that most of the light will not
reach the water. The three lamp fixture is worse because the lamps are
spaced too close together. This would be a low light situation with
either fixture.

An efficient design would have the tubes more widely separated, and a
partial wrap-around reflector associated with each one.

Given that you prefer to purchase rather than build, perhaps you could
consider using a clear glass versatop, and a power compact hood sitting
on top of it. The price may not be much different, but this solution
would put much more light into your aquarium. The Coralife Aqualight
48" with two 65W power compact lamps is a nice modern design. Just over
$100 at HelloLights.com.

George

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