hey guys.. first off thanks to all of you for the info. this place is an
awsome resource.

i've decided on my setup after 3 months of researching. im going for a
planted setup. i havent decided on the entire plant setup but it will
definitely include riccia, dwarf hairgrass and various crypts. hopefully
i'll have 70-90% ground cover. neons, corys, dwarf gourami & rams will
likely be my choice of fish, but the jury is still out.

so far i've bought the tank, glass cover and custom stand. the rest i still
have yet to buy. i was wanting to get some last minute opinions on my
product choices.

29 gallon 30x18x12
marineland tidepool sump and s.o.s. overflow
diy c02 and jager 100 watt heater in the sump
2x55 watt pc lights mounted 6-8 inches away from the water surface in the
hood

heres some questions:
1. im concerned about the lights. is 6-8 inches too far away?
2. tidepool? yay, nay?
3. would you recommend using fans for the pc lights?

thanks in advance guys
jake

Jake wrote:

i havent decided on the entire plant setup but it will
definitely include riccia, dwarf hairgrass and various crypts. hopefully
i'll have 70-90% ground cover. neons, corys, dwarf gourami & rams will
likely be my choice of fish, but the jury is still out.

Corydoras want sald or fine gravel to sift through. Leave some substrate open
(but that can be open substrate under stem plants).


29 gallon 30x18x12
2x55 watt pc lights mounted 6-8 inches away from the water surface in the
hood

heres some questions:
1. im concerned about the lights. is 6-8 inches too far away?

What is your goal for raising the lights? You will definitely lose intensity
with each inch.

3. would you recommend using fans for the pc lights?

Probably not necessary, unless your hood is somehow tightly sealed to your tank
and your enclosure, which does not sound like the case.

1. im concerned about the lights. is 6-8 inches too far away?

What is your goal for raising the lights? You will definitely lose
intensity
with each inch.


no absolutley not!!! you will not lose much intensity through the air.

In article ,
Benthic wrote:

no absolutley not!!! you will not lose much intensity through the air.

Not through the air, per se, but because light loses its intensity
logrithmically with distance. There are plenty of situations where a
dimmer light, closer up, is more efficient than a brighter light,
further away, because you have to have exponentially brighter light
sources compared to a linear increase in distance.

Maybe it doesn't matter for this application, but it certainly is a
practical problem for photographers.

"Benthic" wrote in message ...
1. im concerned about the lights. is 6-8 inches too far away?

What is your goal for raising the lights? You will definitely lose
intensity
with each inch.


no absolutley not!!! you will not lose much intensity through the air.

Think about this for a moment... the farther away a light source is
the dimmer the light. Of course you loose intensity the higher the
light is above the tank!

If your lights are 6 to 8" above the tank, then you must have an open
top tank? You only need a fan in a closed system to draw the heat out.
If there is 6 to 8" of open space then a fan would be pointless. What
is your reason for having that much space?

Robert Hudson
www.aquabotanic.com

james wrote:

In article ,
Benthic wrote:

no absolutley not!!! you will not lose much intensity through the air.

Not through the air, per se, but because light loses its intensity
logrithmically with distance. There are plenty of situations where a
dimmer light, closer up, is more efficient than a brighter light,
further away, because you have to have exponentially brighter light
sources compared to a linear increase in distance.

Maybe it doesn't matter for this application, but it certainly is a
practical problem for photographers.


Intensity at distance d = A (Intensity at distance
0)/(d^2)
where A is a constant