Lighting for my new Planted Discus Tank
Hi all,
As of early next year, I want to move my discus out of the 2'x2' cube and into a 4'x2'x2' tank. I currently have a MH pendant above my cube tank which has done me well, but I am wondering if I should continue it above the 4'... I would like to use Compact Fluro's... As I think the MH is just a bit too bright for the discus. Can anyone give me advise/experience with these lights? Are the CF's going to be able to supply light to a 2' deep tank? Any advise would be great. thank you. Justin. |
Lighting for my new Planted Discus Tank
Justin wrote:
Hi all, As of early next year, I want to move my discus out of the 2'x2' cube and into a 4'x2'x2' tank. I currently have a MH pendant above my cube tank which has done me well, but I am wondering if I should continue it above the 4'... I would like to use Compact Fluro's... As I think the MH is just a bit too bright for the discus. Can anyone give me advise/experience with these lights? Are the CF's going to be able to supply light to a 2' deep tank? Any advise would be great. thank you. Justin. -- No problem with any kind of fluorescent - so long as you have a good reflector above the tube. Without a good reflector the light is spreading out at too much of an angle, so the beam is wide but less intense at the bottom of the tank. Your planned 2' wide, 2' deep tank is a more favorable shape than the narrower tanks that are so popular. You have many lighting options for a 48" wide tank. Two 55/65W power compacts, end to end, would be a good amount of light for a fish only tank but on the low side if you want to optimize plant growth. Four 55/65W in 2x2 would be the next step up in commonly available fixtures. Coralife Aqualight are good quality fixtures, available in these configurations with 6700K lamps. AH supply has kits for power compacts in these sizes. If you want to roll your own, you would have more options with T-5, or even overdriven T-8. Good reflectors are available for both tubes; hopefully the price will come down. |
Lighting for my new Planted Discus Tank
Thanks for your response George!
I've had a look at some CF options here in australia and there are 2 types i'm looking at... I can get either a 2x55watt or a 4x55watt... Do you think it may be best to have 2x the 2x55watt to provide light to both front and back of aquarium... or just the one 4x55watt with maybe two 1000k globes at back and two 6500k globes at front? I am just worried that the light with four tubes will not be able to light front and back as the aquarium is 2' wide... thanks. Justin. "George Pontis" wrote in message ... Justin wrote: Hi all, As of early next year, I want to move my discus out of the 2'x2' cube and into a 4'x2'x2' tank. I currently have a MH pendant above my cube tank which has done me well, but I am wondering if I should continue it above the 4'... I would like to use Compact Fluro's... As I think the MH is just a bit too bright for the discus. Can anyone give me advise/experience with these lights? Are the CF's going to be able to supply light to a 2' deep tank? Any advise would be great. thank you. Justin. -- No problem with any kind of fluorescent - so long as you have a good reflector above the tube. Without a good reflector the light is spreading out at too much of an angle, so the beam is wide but less intense at the bottom of the tank. Your planned 2' wide, 2' deep tank is a more favorable shape than the narrower tanks that are so popular. You have many lighting options for a 48" wide tank. Two 55/65W power compacts, end to end, would be a good amount of light for a fish only tank but on the low side if you want to optimize plant growth. Four 55/65W in 2x2 would be the next step up in commonly available fixtures. Coralife Aqualight are good quality fixtures, available in these configurations with 6700K lamps. AH supply has kits for power compacts in these sizes. If you want to roll your own, you would have more options with T-5, or even overdriven T-8. Good reflectors are available for both tubes; hopefully the price will come down. |
Lighting for my new Planted Discus Tank
Justin wrote:
Thanks for your response George! I've had a look at some CF options here in australia and there are 2 types i'm looking at... I can get either a 2x55watt or a 4x55watt... Do you think it may be best to have 2x the 2x55watt to provide light to both front and back of aquarium... or just the one 4x55watt with maybe two 1000k globes at back and two 6500k globes at front? I am just worried that the light with four tubes will not be able to light front and back as the aquarium is 2' wide... thanks. Justin. "George Pontis" wrote in message ... Justin wrote: Hi all, As of early next year, I want to move my discus out of the 2'x2' cube and into a 4'x2'x2' tank. I currently have a MH pendant above my cube tank which has done me well, but I am wondering if I should continue it above the 4'... I would like to use Compact Fluro's... As I think the MH is just a bit too bright for the discus. Can anyone give me advise/experience with these lights? Are the CF's going to be able to supply light to a 2' deep tank? Any advise would be great. thank you. Justin. -- No problem with any kind of fluorescent - so long as you have a good reflector above the tube. Without a good reflector the light is spreading out at too much of an angle, so the beam is wide but less intense at the bottom of the tank. Your planned 2' wide, 2' deep tank is a more favorable shape than the narrower tanks that are so popular. You have many lighting options for a 48" wide tank. Two 55/65W power compacts, end to end, would be a good amount of light for a fish only tank but on the low side if you want to optimize plant growth. Four 55/65W in 2x2 would be the next step up in commonly available fixtures. Coralife Aqualight are good quality fixtures, available in these configurations with 6700K lamps. AH supply has kits for power compacts in these sizes. If you want to roll your own, you would have more options with T-5, or even overdriven T-8. Good reflectors are available for both tubes; hopefully the price will come down. -- Your concern about the width of the tank is understandable. Even though the light from any CFL ficture will fan out, it probably will fall off quite a bit at the ends if you centered the fixture over the tank. There is an unexpected benefit from that, which is that algae are less likely to thrive on the front and back glass. The 48" Coralife aqualight in 4x65 is 7" front to back, so you could conceivably have two of those over your tank if you desired. Other brands are probably similar in dimension. With over 400W of fluorescent lamps, I think you could grow any type of aquarium plant. You could start with one and add another later, or add a 2x65 later as the need arises. You might find that I am not sure what you mean by 10000K or 6700K globes. If MH, then I think that you would have a hard time getting the light from such a small, intense source spread nicely over the tank area. The same would go for screw-in fluorescents, except that they are not as intense. The long tubes just seem to fit your application better. |
Lighting for my new Planted Discus Tank
Thanks George,
You have helped me a great deal. I think I am going to have to have a 1x4 and a 1x2 which will give me approx 3watt per gallon ( i think... i figured it out in metric then converted...) Which means I will get away with most plants... As it's a discus tank, most of the plants are not going to be high light requiring plants. thanks once again. Justin. "George Pontis" wrote in message ... Justin wrote: Thanks for your response George! I've had a look at some CF options here in australia and there are 2 types i'm looking at... I can get either a 2x55watt or a 4x55watt... Do you think it may be best to have 2x the 2x55watt to provide light to both front and back of aquarium... or just the one 4x55watt with maybe two 1000k globes at back and two 6500k globes at front? I am just worried that the light with four tubes will not be able to light front and back as the aquarium is 2' wide... thanks. Justin. "George Pontis" wrote in message ... Justin wrote: Hi all, As of early next year, I want to move my discus out of the 2'x2' cube and into a 4'x2'x2' tank. I currently have a MH pendant above my cube tank which has done me well, but I am wondering if I should continue it above the 4'... I would like to use Compact Fluro's... As I think the MH is just a bit too bright for the discus. Can anyone give me advise/experience with these lights? Are the CF's going to be able to supply light to a 2' deep tank? Any advise would be great. thank you. Justin. -- No problem with any kind of fluorescent - so long as you have a good reflector above the tube. Without a good reflector the light is spreading out at too much of an angle, so the beam is wide but less intense at the bottom of the tank. Your planned 2' wide, 2' deep tank is a more favorable shape than the narrower tanks that are so popular. You have many lighting options for a 48" wide tank. Two 55/65W power compacts, end to end, would be a good amount of light for a fish only tank but on the low side if you want to optimize plant growth. Four 55/65W in 2x2 would be the next step up in commonly available fixtures. Coralife Aqualight are good quality fixtures, available in these configurations with 6700K lamps. AH supply has kits for power compacts in these sizes. If you want to roll your own, you would have more options with T-5, or even overdriven T-8. Good reflectors are available for both tubes; hopefully the price will come down. -- Your concern about the width of the tank is understandable. Even though the light from any CFL ficture will fan out, it probably will fall off quite a bit at the ends if you centered the fixture over the tank. There is an unexpected benefit from that, which is that algae are less likely to thrive on the front and back glass. The 48" Coralife aqualight in 4x65 is 7" front to back, so you could conceivably have two of those over your tank if you desired. Other brands are probably similar in dimension. With over 400W of fluorescent lamps, I think you could grow any type of aquarium plant. You could start with one and add another later, or add a 2x65 later as the need arises. You might find that I am not sure what you mean by 10000K or 6700K globes. If MH, then I think that you would have a hard time getting the light from such a small, intense source spread nicely over the tank area. The same would go for screw-in fluorescents, except that they are not as intense. The long tubes just seem to fit your application better. |
Without a acceptable reflector the ablaze is overextension out at too abundant of an angle, so the axle is advanced but beneath acute at the basal of the tank. Your planned 2' wide, 2' abysmal catchbasin is a added favorable appearance than the narrower tanks that are so popular.
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