"Victor M. Martinez" wrote:

I was thinking of getting one of those eclipse combos,
a 30 gallon looked nice.

Consider buying the hood and the tank separately. You may be able to
save some money.

I certainly don't want to deal with hoses and cables
all over the place.

The Eclipse is really nice in that regard! And maintenance is a snap.

The eclipse concept is certainly convenient, but does it work?

It works very well as a general lighting and filtration setup. I've
got an Eclipse hood on my 20 gallon, and I like it a lot.

However, it may not be the best choice for a planted tank, unless you
have plants that don't require a lot of light. My plants did poorly
until I added a DIY light fixture to the existing Eclipse lighting.

The water return on an Eclipse hood creates a fair amount of
turbulence at the water surface. This is good for ensuring good oxygen
levels in the water, but tends to make CO2 leave the water quickly,
which will interfere with plant growth somewhat.

Those negatives aside, it's certainly possible to use an Eclipse hood
on a planted tank - I'm doing it with reasonably good success. But
some other options may be better.

If I had to do it over, I'd probably build a complete DIY hood for my
planted tank and use the Eclipse for an unplanted one.


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