Increased wattage??

[Erk]

I have a 46 gallon bowfront tank with a good bit of live plants in right now. I have the coralife aqualight, and I replaced the 10,000k bulb that came with the fixture, with a 6,700k plant bulb. Both bulbs are 96 watts? So that is a lil less then 2 watts per gallon. There is also a 96 watts true actinic bulb in the fixture, that I left alone.

Is there a way to incease the 2 watts per gallon using the same fixture I have for the plants? I cant seem to find any bulbs at my LFS that are more then 96 watt

Thanks

[ILLUSN]

you won't get bigger then a 96w CF what you have should be ok try adding CO2 for a growth boost, also look into retrofitting a couple of good reflectors into your hood, try AHSUPPLY (you'll have to google) excellent reflectors can REALLy bost the light hitting your tank

[Erk]

Thanks again ILLUSN, I do use CO2, and I have a lil tester in the tank that changes colors to let me know if im low, and it has been in the green, which is good all the time so far! I figured I couldnt find anything bigger then 96w :-( I will google the reflectors today! Thanks a lot! Would you recommend I replace the true actinic bulb? I wanted this fixture for increased lighting, for the plants, and I like the lunar blue lights! I do start to get a good bit of algae in about a week or so. I need to get all this down and under control before I pick up some discus! Thanks again!

[ILLUSN]

Actinics are useless for plants too far in the blue spectrum, grap a plant tube, you do have ALOT of light i run 496w on my 6x2x2 and all my plants pearl constantly (with lights on ofcourse)

[ILLUSN]

sorry cant type i run 4x96w CF on my tank

[Erk]

sorry cant type i run 4x96w CF on my tank

Thanks for the tip! and no algae problems? I dont run much of a co2 system, its actually these lil ampules full of co2 you suction cup on the side of the tank, and it drips out over two days! hahaha but i have a lil color reader in there and it is in the green which is good! so no pressurized co2....air stone at night, when lights are off, and the lights are set to be ON for 12 hours right now, and I clean 30% once a week of water. I see so many tanks on here with very well planted tanks, and I really like it, and when I feel comfortable with the plants and water conditions, I will get my discus :D Just dont really want algae problems in between my water changes, its not the most pleasing to look at! I have a queen arabesque, and 1 otto for algae eaters

Thanks for your help!![/quote]