What else needed?

[Tony]

I just recently purchased a 75 G tank that I've set up as a freshwater
aquarium. I'm wanting to feature live plants in the tank (along with the
fish).

The tank came with a single flourescent bulb light hood. I ordered and just
received another light hood--this one having two bulbs. This gives me 3
flourescent bulbs over the tank--each of them 40W bulbs.

I've also hooked up a DIY Co2 system that seems to be running very well.

I've read as much as I can find on getting this setup.

There are a few things I'm unclear on and would like help.

*I'm currently putting 120W of light into this tank. That's still not
considered very high, is it? Is there any way to solve this? I can't fit
another light hood on the tank. I'm not sure what type of bulb is in the
light hoods currently. It is whatever is shipped with an "All-Glass
Aquarium, Inc." light hood.

*My biggest concern right now is substrate. I have a canister filter
(Magnum 350). The base of my tank is exclusively river gravel. Is this
going to be a problem? If so, what should I do? (I can't very easily
change out the substrate in its entirety at this point.)

Thanks for any helpful hints.

Tony

[Dave Millman]

Tony wrote:

> The tank came with a single flourescent bulb light hood. I ordered and just
> received another light hood--this one having two bulbs. This gives me 3
> flourescent bulbs over the tank--each of them 40W bulbs.

(snip)

> There are a few things I'm unclear on and would like help.
>
> *I'm currently putting 120W of light into this tank. That's still not
> considered very high, is it? Is there any way to solve this? I can't fit
> another light hood on the tank. I'm not sure what type of bulb is in the
> light hoods currently. It is whatever is shipped with an "All-Glass
> Aquarium, Inc." light hood.

Your goal for a planted should be 2-4 watts of quality flourescent light per
gallon. This metric is crude, but works in most cases. That means you want
150-300 watts of good flourescent light over your tank.

If you can, return the new two-bulb hood, and purchase/build one of the
following:

* Buy a compact flourescent fixture. Some vendors now sell 48"
hoods with 200+ watts of CF.

* Build a compact flourescent kit. www.ahsupply.com is the
leading vendor.

* Build a hood with 4-6 standard 48" flourescent bulbs. This route
is significantly cheaper, and according to many list members it
works well, but it takes more work on your part.

The key points in building your own:

* Good reflectors increase light output significantly
* Electronic ballasts produce more light than the cheap magnetic
ballasts in shop light fixtures.

If going the Compact Flourescent route, bulb temperatures of 5000K-6700K are the
right range. Actinic and deeper blue bulbs are for specific sal****er
applications.

[kush]

> * Build a hood with 4-6 standard 48" flourescent bulbs. This route
> is significantly cheaper, and according to many list members it
> works well, but it takes more work on your part.

But compacts supposedly last longer, needing to be replaced every 18 months,
as opposed to every 6 months for standards.

> If going the Compact Flourescent route, bulb temperatures of 5000K-6700K
are the
> right range. Actinic and deeper blue bulbs are for specific sal****er
> applications.

In my opinion, plants look nicer at the low end (5300k available from AH)
but the fish are sort of "yellowed-out." I'd recommend mixing them up, say
6700k's in the front strip and 5300k's in the back.

kush

"You can't have everything - where would you put it?"