Lighting Question

[Steve-o]

I have a 90 gallon tank running co2 and im looking to upgrade my light. I Found a light... Is it over kill? will my discus hate it? :shock:

http://www.petsolutions.com/Nova-Extreme-Pro-HO-T5+I42901080+C40001722.aspx

[ILLUSN]

THEY'LL BE FINE! that light will do your tank nicely IME with good t5 HO's you only need 3w/gal to get impressive plant growth.

[Steve-o]

ok awesome! thanks for your valued wisdom ILLUSN
8-)

[Steve-o]

Well i dont know what i was thinking when i said it was a 90 gallon tank... its a 75 gallon tank! :oops: Soooo... that would be around 4.32 watts per gallon... is that too much? I wanted to have a light that would have dawn to dusk capabilities like this one does. Can anyone suggest a light that can do that if this light is overkill for a 75 gallon tank?

Thanks for the help

Steve

[ILLUSN]

you could always just take a bulb out. save some power

[Steve-o]

I think i found a light that might be more suitable for my tank. it would be around 2.88 wpg. what do you think?

http://www.petsolutions.com/Sundial-T5HO+I42901150+C40001722.aspx

Steve

[ILLUSN]

it will do the job fine, just make sure to rip out the actinics they're useless for plants.

[Steve-o]

Ok will do... what do you suggest i replace them with? 65K T5s? 10K? are the Blue actinics useful for anything?

Thanks for the help!

[mourt]

Blues are useless for freshwater tanks. They're useful for marines as far as I know for the coral I believe. They do look pretty with blue lights though. If I were you and wanted that look though I would invest in some blue LED's like these http://cgi.ebay.com/36-30-LED-Moonlight-Aquarium-Moon-Light-Power-Supply_W0QQitemZ260430934431QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_ DefaultDomain_0?hash=item3ca2e4b19f&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=65%3A12%7C66%3A2%7C39%3A1%7C72%3A1205%7C 240%3A1318%7C301%3A1%7C293%3A1%7C294%3A50

I bought some of these from this seller and they are fantastic, low cost, cheap to run, low heat moonlights.

[xrboy_85]

Mourt wrote
Blues are useless for freshwater tanks. They're useful for marines as far as I know for the coral I believe. They do look pretty with blue lights though.


The blue tubes will actually bring the rich colour in your plants, Thats if you have plants in your tank, it will also bring out the colour in any blue fish you have

i run a 4x54w t5 and have 3x10k white tubes and one blue tube located at the front of tyhe ballast.

HTH
Justin

[mcloughlin2]

There is no point using a watt per gallon rule if you want a good light. too many variables (Lux & par readings etc) What is the height of the tank? If the tank is 45cm heigh you could get away with less globes then you could if it is 60cm heigh. Also how wide the tank is will determine how many rows of tubes you need to spread the light. So what are your tank diamensions?

[barramundi]

I'm wondering,i've seen 10,000k globes for marine and 10,000k globes for planted aquariums advertised, is their a difference?
When i bought my lights it came with 3 x 10,000k 150 wt mh uv block globes,2 x 10,000k 54 wt globes and 2 x 54 wt actinic globes + 4 moonlights,thats the only info i had when i bought it.The lights all seem to have a white/blue look to them.
The planted aquarium i have the light above never looks as good as when i had the power glow tubes over it.

Thanks John

[Proteus]

10,000k is 10,000k

It is all about the packaging and name... anything to try and make the tube sound more specific.

There may be slight variations between the Lux & Par levels (as per previous reply) but overall, the colour temperature (Kelvin) is the same