I could try and blind you with my brilliance....(no pun intended)......but all you really want to know is how to light up your tank in the easiest possible way.

If you buy an off the shelf tank there is a fair likelihood that the fish tank lighting will have been set up with an unplanted tank in mind.  Not enough light and possibly the wrong sort.

That's great as long as you intend to use artificial plants.  Personally for lots of reasons, I think that it is worth making the effort to plant a tank.  It looks great, it changes all the time as plants grow, it helps with water quality and it gives you a warm fuzzy glow every time you think about how clever you've been.

If you plant a tank you need to increase the fish tank lighting either by changing the tubes or by adding to them.  Both fairly easy to do.  Most off teh shelf tanks are able to take another light bar doubling the light.  It is worth checking before buying to make life easier.

So....Artificial Plants....light the fish......which is about 2 Watts per gallon

Planted aquarium........You need to light the plants..........so 3-5 Watts per gallon.

Start out on about 3 Watts per gallon.  Generally speaking that will be enough especially with the easier plants.

These are very general guidelines based on a standard shaped tank.  If your tank is especially tall, you'll need more light, but if you read our tank page first hopefully you will have had the sense to decide on a standard shaped tank to start with.

Do remember that whenever you calculate the gallons of a tank, don't use the manufacturers measure.  You have changed the gallonage by using up space with substrate and decorations, so reduce the gallons accordingly whenever calculating fish tank lighting or fish population.

For your first aquarium stick with standard fluorescent lighting.  There are other types out there which I will run through but by far the simplest to set up and maintain is standard fluorescent.  They come in different lengths and wattage.  Look for some that are slightly shorter than your tank and try to keep the light even along the length of the tank.

Other Options for Aquarium Lighting.

Incandescent - Not great for aquariums.  They are expensive to run and put out a lot of heat for the light that they produce, leading to temperature problems in some cases.

Metal halide - Great for reef tank owners who need more light.  They get hotter than flourescents but the light to heat ratio is still better.  Use these and you will probably be looking at installing a cooling fan.  These are also well suited to oddly shaped tanks

High Output and Very High Output Flourescents - Again these are great for deep tanks so bear then in mind for your next project.  As the name suggests they are flourescents that give out more light.

Energy Efficient Flourescents - The only other one that may be worth looking at for a beginner simply because with global warming, energy efficiency is becoming important to everyone