Moderate to best lighting for a 20gal planted tank?

[Sharbuckle]

been doing the saltwater thing lately, but i have a 20gal fresh setup lying around that im going to make a nice planted tank out of, so would love to get some input from the planted experts on which lighting i should use!

also substrate and C02 tips would be great

[Laura]

Hi there,
Although I'm not one of our resident plant gurus, let me see if I can help you get the ball rolling.  Would you like to go high or low tech?  Do you want to buy fantastic new lighting or try and do something with the existing canopy?  Is it a tall tank?

[Zoe]

IMO Coralife freshwater compact fluorescent fixtures are the way to go for freshwater tanks.  Not sure of the length of your tank but the fixtues come in several lengths.  If you want a "high tech" tank with high lighting and CO2, go with the dual fixture; if you want to go with a "low tech" tank with maybe just a DIY CO2 reactor and moderate lighting, go with the single fixture. The single should be more than enough for most plants and one CO2 reactor would only make things better.  I had a single 24" over a 20" tall tank and when I switched to a dual it was WAY too bright - I probably would have needed pressurized CO2 if I wanted to keep it with that lighting, but if you did want to do that, you could have some awesome grown cover plants, too (glossotigma etc).

[bergenm]

IMO Coralife freshwater compact fluorescent fixtures are the way to go for freshwater tanks.

Zoe,

Do you use the white ones from PetSmart or the pink ones from B.A.?

[Zoe]

This is what I'm referring to:

[charlie]

been doing the saltwater thing lately, but i have a 20gal fresh setup lying around that im going to make a nice planted tank out of, so would love to get some input from the planted experts on which lighting i should use!

also substrate and C02 tips would be great

I`m with Laura, it would be best to determine what type of planted tank you want to do, lighting is the single most deciding factor as to how everything else fall`s in place, the intensity of light will determine what type of plants you keep & dictate the requirement of nutrients such as CO2 , fertilizers ,& maintenance.
There are several types of plants that require different light levels to thrive,these are commonly broken down into high light plants, medium light , & low light.
The determination of substrate is also determine by the type of tank & plants you intend to keep , they are cheap alternatives & of course the specialised ones, which can cost a lot, if you are doing mainly stem plants then substrate is less important, if you plan on doing rosette or rooted plants , then the importance of substrate becomes more of a concern.
Hope this does not serve to discourage , but more to serve in the way of having you start on the right path, below is a link that i have found to be very helpfull to giving a good understanding of planted tanks, have fun.

http://www.rexgrigg.com/