Help with co2, lighting, and nutrition

WisFish

And what I was suggesting wasn't to go from say, 2 watts per gallon to 4. But rather if you have to pick between two fixtures, one providing 2 watts per gallon and the other 2.2, I'd consider going with the stonger one IF you'll have plants that cover the surface. The next time my jungle vals get that thick, I'll post a picture. But I just sold 7 plants to the LFS to thin them out.

baron von bubba

byron is right in saying you need to decide what you want from the tank.

if you want low maintenance/low cost go for low tech.
this will severely limit the plant options available to you.

i you want to be playing lots, trimming, replanting, doing water changes, monitoring co2 etc and obviously expense isn't an issue too much then go high tech.

high tech with 3watts per gallon and injected co2 will grow anything. (altho 2w/g would be enough for the vast majority of plants.)

the higher the lighting the faster things can go wrong too, if you go for really high lighting the co2 has to be spot on, the ferts are easy, just look into EI (estimated index) its a pretty much fool proof way of dosing your ferts.

flow is also much more important in a high tech tank, 10x tank volume per hour would be a fair target.