Loaches Online Forum

I am currently setting up a 75g species tank which will house my 6 clowns ( they are currently in a 60g) and I understand that they prefer a dimly lighted tank, so my question is what would be the best lighting for them?
This tank will also have alot of low light plants also.
Thank you!

hi loa-ches, in my 6 foot i use a combination of three flourescents and two T5 tubes, in the morning i just turn the T5's on for an hour then put each of the flourescents on until at noon all the lights are on, i would use a few tubes each set on its own timer to come on each hour and the same at night to go off in succession.

mick

Go with at least 1 watt per gallon for the plants. If you can get closer to 1.5 to 2 watts this is better, even for low light plants.
Home Depot and other hardware stores have a fixture that holds 2 bulbs, T-8, 32 watts and they are 4' long. 2 of these fixtures over my 72 gallon bowfront works really well. The plants grow strongly enough that the fish (Discus) have shade.

I use 0,17 Watts/liter on my 450 liter Loach tank. There are 2xT12 40 Watts each, one pink, one blue and a T8 36 Watts white bulb, but I rarely use all 3 at same time. I often use pink+blue OR white. All 3 at same time only when I want to do phtotos or movies. Plants are doing fine with this lightning, at least the one my loaches doesn´t eat!