Taking the leap - lighting retrofit

20 gallon high with Eclipse 2 hood, Flourite substrate.

Over the past couple of weeks I've seen the health and appearance of
my plants failing. They're hanging on, barely, but they're not healthy
or growing well. I'm terribly jealous of the folks who get to see
pearling, or who have to trim their plants back weekly. Heck, I'm
jealous of the folks whose plants simply look nice.

So I've hit Google and looked into adding lighting to my system, in a
minimal hardware-impact way.

Currently, it looks like I'm going to be going for the following from
AH Supply (www.ahsupply.com):

2 x 13 Watt Deluxe Bright Kit ($29.99)
Two 6400K bulbs ($4.99 each)

Assuming I don't incur hospital or funeral expenses, it'll run me $40
plus shipping and incidentals.

Combined with the existing 30 watts that come standard on the Eclipse,
this will make for a total of 56 watts. And perhaps as importantly,
it'll put more light in the center and rear of the tank where it's
very much needed. The Eclipse lighting is all at the front, and it
shows in the plants - what growth there has been has all leaned
forward.

The deluxe kit mentioned above is two complete lighting fixtures
(including transformers) and a single reflector. The incidentals I'll
need are some stiff wire to make hanging hooks, and a piece of glass
or acrylic to serve as a splash guard.

The whole thing should be able to just fit into the space between the
existing front light fixture and the rear filtration unit. It'll leave
me a bit of room at one end for feeding, and lift out easily for tank
maintenance.


Anyone have any experience or suggestions to add?



--
www.ericschreiber.com

If you've got 3W/G make sure you've got CO2 injection(DIY yeast/Bottle +
diffuser/reactor) happening and aquatic plant fertiliser/PMDD on hand which
is probably your current problem as your plants may be lacking Potassium(K),
Iron(Fe) and trace elements atm. Without CO2 and with high lighting algae
will take a stanglehold and without a fertiliser added 2-7 times a week the
plants will become depleted and eventually cark it.
Google will help you with these concepts if you're not familiar with them.

"Eric Schreiber" wrote in message
...
20 gallon high with Eclipse 2 hood, Flourite substrate.

Over the past couple of weeks I've seen the health and appearance of
my plants failing. They're hanging on, barely, but they're not healthy
or growing well. I'm terribly jealous of the folks who get to see
pearling, or who have to trim their plants back weekly. Heck, I'm
jealous of the folks whose plants simply look nice.

So I've hit Google and looked into adding lighting to my system, in a
minimal hardware-impact way.

Currently, it looks like I'm going to be going for the following from
AH Supply (www.ahsupply.com):

2 x 13 Watt Deluxe Bright Kit ($29.99)
Two 6400K bulbs ($4.99 each)

Assuming I don't incur hospital or funeral expenses, it'll run me $40
plus shipping and incidentals.

Combined with the existing 30 watts that come standard on the Eclipse,
this will make for a total of 56 watts. And perhaps as importantly,
it'll put more light in the center and rear of the tank where it's
very much needed. The Eclipse lighting is all at the front, and it
shows in the plants - what growth there has been has all leaned
forward.

The deluxe kit mentioned above is two complete lighting fixtures
(including transformers) and a single reflector. The incidentals I'll
need are some stiff wire to make hanging hooks, and a piece of glass
or acrylic to serve as a splash guard.

The whole thing should be able to just fit into the space between the
existing front light fixture and the rear filtration unit. It'll leave
me a bit of room at one end for feeding, and lift out easily for tank
maintenance.


Anyone have any experience or suggestions to add?



--
www.ericschreiber.com

If you've got 3W/G make sure you've got CO2 injection(DIY yeast/Bottle +
diffuser/reactor) happening and aquatic plant fertiliser/PMDD on hand which
is probably your current problem as your plants may be lacking Potassium(K),
Iron(Fe) and trace elements atm. Without CO2 and with high lighting algae
will take a stanglehold and without a fertiliser added 2-7 times a week the
plants will become depleted and eventually cark it.
Google will help you with these concepts if you're not familiar with them.

"Eric Schreiber" wrote in message
...
20 gallon high with Eclipse 2 hood, Flourite substrate.

Over the past couple of weeks I've seen the health and appearance of
my plants failing. They're hanging on, barely, but they're not healthy
or growing well. I'm terribly jealous of the folks who get to see
pearling, or who have to trim their plants back weekly. Heck, I'm
jealous of the folks whose plants simply look nice.

So I've hit Google and looked into adding lighting to my system, in a
minimal hardware-impact way.

Currently, it looks like I'm going to be going for the following from
AH Supply (www.ahsupply.com):

2 x 13 Watt Deluxe Bright Kit ($29.99)
Two 6400K bulbs ($4.99 each)

Assuming I don't incur hospital or funeral expenses, it'll run me $40
plus shipping and incidentals.

Combined with the existing 30 watts that come standard on the Eclipse,
this will make for a total of 56 watts. And perhaps as importantly,
it'll put more light in the center and rear of the tank where it's
very much needed. The Eclipse lighting is all at the front, and it
shows in the plants - what growth there has been has all leaned
forward.

The deluxe kit mentioned above is two complete lighting fixtures
(including transformers) and a single reflector. The incidentals I'll
need are some stiff wire to make hanging hooks, and a piece of glass
or acrylic to serve as a splash guard.

The whole thing should be able to just fit into the space between the
existing front light fixture and the rear filtration unit. It'll leave
me a bit of room at one end for feeding, and lift out easily for tank
maintenance.


Anyone have any experience or suggestions to add?



--
www.ericschreiber.com

"Tasslehoff" wrote:

If you've got 3W/G make sure you've got CO2 injection(DIY yeast/Bottle +
diffuser/reactor) happening and aquatic plant fertiliser/PMDD on hand which
is probably your current problem as your plants may be lacking Potassium(K),
Iron(Fe) and trace elements atm.

I do have DIY CO2 going (two bottles), and despite the turbulence that
comes with an Eclipse system, the CO2 level has gone up a bit (from
2.8 to 6.2 ppm). It's not as high as I'd like, naturally, but it may
be the best I'm going to see.

I've just recently (two weeks?) started adding Leaf Zone to address
the fertilizer situation. Too early to tell if it's helping. Right
now, I'm sure the bottleneck is lighting.

I'll put the new lights on a different timer than the existing ones,
so I'll be able to adjust the light levels to compensate for any algae
problems somewhat. Just have to experiment with it.


--
www.ericschreiber.com

"Tasslehoff" wrote:

If you've got 3W/G make sure you've got CO2 injection(DIY yeast/Bottle +
diffuser/reactor) happening and aquatic plant fertiliser/PMDD on hand which
is probably your current problem as your plants may be lacking Potassium(K),
Iron(Fe) and trace elements atm.

I do have DIY CO2 going (two bottles), and despite the turbulence that
comes with an Eclipse system, the CO2 level has gone up a bit (from
2.8 to 6.2 ppm). It's not as high as I'd like, naturally, but it may
be the best I'm going to see.

I've just recently (two weeks?) started adding Leaf Zone to address
the fertilizer situation. Too early to tell if it's helping. Right
now, I'm sure the bottleneck is lighting.

I'll put the new lights on a different timer than the existing ones,
so I'll be able to adjust the light levels to compensate for any algae
problems somewhat. Just have to experiment with it.


--
www.ericschreiber.com

tose (LeighMo) wrote:

the CO2 level has gone up a bit (from 2.8 to 6.2 ppm)

Is there any way you can reduce the turbulence? That's not much CO2.

Been wondering that myself. The basic design of the Eclipse hood runs
the outflow of the filter at the surface of the tank, which is where
the turbulence comes from. It may be possible to put a short extension
on and run that return flow into the middle depths of the tank.

My DIY CO2 hasn't been playing at all nice this week. Not sure why,
but I've got no production on the mixes I made this week. It looks
like I'll have to mix up two new bottles tonight. Makes me want to get
a CO2 tank instead.


I should note that despite my apparent problems with them, I really
like the Eclipse hoods - I have an Eclipse Two on my 20 gallon, and an
Eclipse System Three tank. For an all-in-one solution, they're very
nice. It's just that out of the box they're not geared towards planted
tank setups. And let's face it, I'm enjoying all this fussing with
gadgets.


Leaf Zone won't be adequate when you go up to nearly 3 wpg. It's
only iron and potassium. Get Tropica Mastergrow or Seachem Flourish.

I had planned on using Flourish at first, until I saw the "refrigerate
after opening" instructions. No problem with that, it just was an
added step so I bought the Leaf Zone instead.


--
www.ericschreiber.com

tose (LeighMo) wrote:

the CO2 level has gone up a bit (from 2.8 to 6.2 ppm)

Is there any way you can reduce the turbulence? That's not much CO2.

Been wondering that myself. The basic design of the Eclipse hood runs
the outflow of the filter at the surface of the tank, which is where
the turbulence comes from. It may be possible to put a short extension
on and run that return flow into the middle depths of the tank.

My DIY CO2 hasn't been playing at all nice this week. Not sure why,
but I've got no production on the mixes I made this week. It looks
like I'll have to mix up two new bottles tonight. Makes me want to get
a CO2 tank instead.


I should note that despite my apparent problems with them, I really
like the Eclipse hoods - I have an Eclipse Two on my 20 gallon, and an
Eclipse System Three tank. For an all-in-one solution, they're very
nice. It's just that out of the box they're not geared towards planted
tank setups. And let's face it, I'm enjoying all this fussing with
gadgets.


Leaf Zone won't be adequate when you go up to nearly 3 wpg. It's
only iron and potassium. Get Tropica Mastergrow or Seachem Flourish.

I had planned on using Flourish at first, until I saw the "refrigerate
after opening" instructions. No problem with that, it just was an
added step so I bought the Leaf Zone instead.


--
www.ericschreiber.com