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 |
Taking the leap - lighting retrofit
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 |
Taking the leap - lighting retrofit
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 |
Taking the leap - lighting retrofit
"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 |
Taking the leap - lighting retrofit
"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 |
Taking the leap - lighting retrofit
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 |
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