ikavia
Tue Jan 30, 2007, 08:13 AM
MOSS WALL
I would like to make a moss wall (http://www.aquarticles.com/articles/plants/leong_Moss_Wall.html), preferably with Christmas Moss. My reason for this is that the Christmas Moss looks a lot more fuller and lusher than Java moss.
Living in Newcastle, NSW my LFSs don't appear to carry either moss. The only place I can find online that carries moss is www.aquariummonsters.com.au and Java Moss at that.
Anyone's input who has experience with either moss would be appreciated.
LIGHTING
Ok, my current 3 foot tank has a standard 3 foot T8 fitting, which currently has a 30 watt fluro (some plant type.. can't remember atm).
I have been looking at putting more lights, probably at the rate of 2.5 wpg, as I wasn't planning on C02 injection for a while yet (I currently use the Sera CO2 tabs every second day in approx 120 litres).
My calc tell me that this means I should be aiming for 65 - 75 watts.
The price of aquarium light set ups seems rather pricey to me so I was thinking about getting a local lighting engineer to supply me. They said they can do me T5s in 549mm (the only ones that fit my 3 foot tank) at either 14 or 24 watts, which means I could get 3 x 24 watts (72 watts).
The real issue is that my west facing lounge room means my tank is currently sitting at 29-30 degrees atm (heater on 28 degrees), and that is with only one 30 watt T8 bulb. The engineer told me that the lamps run at 37 degrees, which I would imagine would heat my tank up even more.
I have seen some articles mentioning the installation of computer fans to help keep the lights cool. I'm not really familiar with the internal workings of a computer, but I was thinking you would have to attach the fans to some sort of power source - is this just a pc power source?
Also, the engineer mentioned getting a thermostat that would turn off some of the bulbs if it reached a certain level. Does anyone have any experience with this?
Obviously I could get a chiller, but it isn't really something that I wanted to spend money on if I could help it.
Help please!
I would like to make a moss wall (http://www.aquarticles.com/articles/plants/leong_Moss_Wall.html), preferably with Christmas Moss. My reason for this is that the Christmas Moss looks a lot more fuller and lusher than Java moss.
Living in Newcastle, NSW my LFSs don't appear to carry either moss. The only place I can find online that carries moss is www.aquariummonsters.com.au and Java Moss at that.
Anyone's input who has experience with either moss would be appreciated.
LIGHTING
Ok, my current 3 foot tank has a standard 3 foot T8 fitting, which currently has a 30 watt fluro (some plant type.. can't remember atm).
I have been looking at putting more lights, probably at the rate of 2.5 wpg, as I wasn't planning on C02 injection for a while yet (I currently use the Sera CO2 tabs every second day in approx 120 litres).
My calc tell me that this means I should be aiming for 65 - 75 watts.
The price of aquarium light set ups seems rather pricey to me so I was thinking about getting a local lighting engineer to supply me. They said they can do me T5s in 549mm (the only ones that fit my 3 foot tank) at either 14 or 24 watts, which means I could get 3 x 24 watts (72 watts).
The real issue is that my west facing lounge room means my tank is currently sitting at 29-30 degrees atm (heater on 28 degrees), and that is with only one 30 watt T8 bulb. The engineer told me that the lamps run at 37 degrees, which I would imagine would heat my tank up even more.
I have seen some articles mentioning the installation of computer fans to help keep the lights cool. I'm not really familiar with the internal workings of a computer, but I was thinking you would have to attach the fans to some sort of power source - is this just a pc power source?
Also, the engineer mentioned getting a thermostat that would turn off some of the bulbs if it reached a certain level. Does anyone have any experience with this?
Obviously I could get a chiller, but it isn't really something that I wanted to spend money on if I could help it.
Help please!