75 gallon with plants and fish... How much light?

[Grits]

How much light is normal to have on a 75 gallon tank? And also, Can you have to much light for the fish to be comfortable?

Right now I have one 48in 40 watt fluorescent light strip. I'm thinking of adding at least another single strip, or maybe even a double. Would that be too much light for my tank?

My Fish:

1 Red Tail Shark
1 Rainbow Shark
1 Zebra Botia
2 Clown Loaches
2 Golden Rams
1 Black Swordtail
2 Common Plecs
3 Cories

My Plants:

A little Elodea and cobomba(not much)
1 fairly large Amazon Sword
1 Hygrophlia
2 smaller plants (I"m not sure of the name)

[Blue Cray]

1 watt per gallon is perfect.

[Damon]

No its not. Your sword will die.....

With regular flourescent, a triple tube strip light will work but 4x55 pc would be ideal.

[The Tick]

Grits, I would agree with Damon. You'll want to push your light to higher levels if you want to those plants to grow into strong warriors for justice!

[davercomeau]

I would do some research on prices and then buy one with at least 200 W and 6700 K. You're fish will be fine in the high light but your plants will die in the low light that you are providing. Search eBay for some good deals.

[MiSo]

i'm using 260 watts pc on my 75 gallon...

before that i was using 2 x 40 watts odno.
that still isn't much light. i couldn't get blyxa japonica to grow in my tank with that setup.

amazon swords grew in my tank just fine with 2 x 40 watts odno.
you can have a low light tank but just be careful with the plants you choose.
here's a pic of that tank with 2 x 40 watts odno. i grew mostly moss and swords.
http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n...m/CIMG1504.jpg