Quick question about lighting

[The Fluffy Injun]

Hiya!

I just switched my lighting to:

2 x 54W 12000k T5 Fluorescent Lamp
2 x 54W T5 Actinic Lamps
8 x blue LED moonlights

This is for my 55 gal tank with white tree frogs.

Do I need other lights or is this ok?

My temps seem normal. Just curious?

[Heatheranne]

The lighting should be fine so long as your temps and humidity are as they should be and so long as there are areas of shade in case they want to get out of the "sun" lighting.

Tall growing plants with lots of foliage such as a pothos plant will be quite helpful. Give them a choice of light or shade.

[The Fluffy Injun]

Awesome, thanks! I already have vines and other plants around, so hopefully they are smart enough to get in the shade

[Heatheranne]

I think they will . Shoot us a nice photo when you're all set up?

[deranged chipmunk]

the plants are going to hate the lighting color temps. actinic is way too blue and so is the 12000k. 6500k is optimum. freshwater planted tank bulbs are what you want. the ones you have are better suited for a reef tank.

[The Fluffy Injun]

So umm in terms of names, what do you recommend? I don't fully understand this light thing. I went off a recommendation from a buddy, who does reefs so it makes sense that I have reef lights :/ I wanted to provide for the aquatic plants and was told it would be good for them.

[Heatheranne]

Here is a great article .
http://www.neherpetoculture.com/vivariumlighting101

[The Fluffy Injun]

Awesome! That was a really helpful article.

[deranged chipmunk]

nice kick save Heath! lol the only thing i want to mention is that you must find out of the fixture you have is t5no or t5ho. the bulbs will be interchangable between fixtures, but if you put a normal output (no) bulb in a high output (ho) fixture, they will burnout quickly. the starting voltages of a t5ho ballast are higher and will fry a no bulb quickly. also, petsmart only sells t5no bulbs. even though they say t5 on them, they are not listed as no or ho. petco does carry ho bulbs.

[Heatheranne]

Lol! I learn from the best .

[The Fluffy Injun]

I have HO's now so I am guessing that I need to stick with HO. I am looking at 6700k as I am poor and they are the best price for four ATM.

[The Fluffy Injun]

I switched out the lights. I have 2 6500k grow lights and 2 3k bloom lights. It looks pretty great and not like the surface of a distant planet now lol

[deranged chipmunk]

are you planning on having flowering plants in the tank? Otherwise, 4 6700's would have been more beneficial.

[The Fluffy Injun]

To be honest I just liked the yellowing warm color it has. I was thinking about doing a flowering plant but I'm not that far along in the planning yet. Still working on the design.

[deranged chipmunk]

gotcha :-)