Wattage for 46 Gallon Bowfront

[Grayskull01]

Hi, I have a 46 gal bowfront. I currently have a Fluval 3.0 27 watt light. I'm afraid that my lighting choice may have been a poor choice. My thinking is that I should have gone with the higher wattage light or a different light altogether. In my search for replacement lighting what wattage should I stay at or above?

 

[oreo54]

Wattage has somewhat fallen out of favor ...for some good and not so good reasons...

A couple of ( debateable) principals are with quality leds on can figure about 3/4's of the wattage of t5's used for what you want to grow. This assumes " normal" tank sizes as well. This breaks down on excessively deep or shallow tanks.
Old school suggests 4-8 wpg t5 translated to 3-6 wpg led...140 + watts of led..minimum
https://www.liveaquaria.com/article/178/?aid=178Personally think the above recommendation errs on the high side but with easily dimmable leds.. no problems.. other than a cost factor.
Bowfronts have " complications" on getting overall uniform lighting due to their nature.

As an example you might get away w/ 1 chinese black box ( and less white channel dimming since the real total wattage is about 110, 55w per channel roughly) but 2 would be better.

27w wouldn't cut it for a fw planted tank really.
You also need to consider depth and braces when choosing a light.


Purposely vague I know and just food for thought

 

[Grayskull01]

Wattage has somewhat fallen out of favor ...for some good and not so good reasons...

A couple of ( debateable) principals are with quality leds on can figure about 3/4's of the wattage of t5's used for what you want to grow. This assumes " normal" tank sizes as well. This breaks down on excessively deep or shallow tanks.
Old school suggests 4-8 wpg t5 translated to 3-6 wpg led...140 + watts of led..minimum
https://www.liveaquaria.com/article/178/?aid=178Personally think the above recommendation errs on the high side but with easily dimmable leds.. no problems.. other than a cost factor.
Bowfronts have " complications" on getting overall uniform lighting due to their nature.

As an example you might get away w/ 1 chinese black box ( and less white channel dimming since the real total wattage is about 110, 55w per channel roughly) but 2 would be better.

27w wouldn't cut it for a fw planted tank really.
You also need to consider depth and braces when choosing a light.


Purposely vague I know and just food for thought

Thank you VERY much for the information. I really appreciate it and it helped out tremendously. I'm obviously VASTLY under "watted" (new word?) The link you provide helped out a bunch as well. This gives me more direction on what to shop for. Thank you again!