Aquarium Lights

[PlasticGalaxy]

For the new tank I'm planning on setting up I'm wanting to keep it without a lid so that I can have some amazon frogbit (maybe) and other tall plants without having them be obscured.
Anyway, I'm looking through overhead lights to use for the tank since I won't have the light that's attached to the tank lid. The issue is, I have no idea what type of light would be good for this tank. I'm not entirely sure of where to look or what exactly to look for.
If anyone has experience with overhead or clip-on lights and similar things, what are some things I should look for, shouldn't look for, and things to avoid entirely?

(Tank is 28.5cm deep and 2ft wide)

 

[Colin_T]

Just make a frame and hang a normal fluorescent or LED light unit above the tank.

If the tank is next to a wall and you are allowed to drill into the wall, you can mount some brackets on the wall above the tank and hang lights on that.

You can buy LED spotlights that can be mounted on a frame above the tank. Just go to a hardware, lighting store and or pet shop, and see what they have available. It doesn't have to be anything fancy. See what is available and post some links or pictures to the items you are interested in and we can advise you further.

Get lights that have globes with a 6500K (K is for Kelvin) rating. Try to find globes with a colour spectrum chart and look for equal amounts of red and blue light on the colour chart. This will provide good wavelengths of light for the plants.

 

[PheonixKingZ]

I’m not sure I follow... you can have a lid-less tank and still have a light like this:

(That’s a Nicrew Classic LED. A highly underrated, but amazing light)

 

[PlasticGalaxy]

I’m not sure I follow... you can have a lid-less tank and still have a light like this:
View attachment 130178
(That’s a Nicrew Classic LED. A highly underrated, but amazing light)

That's pretty much the sort of look I'm going for (I think). How is it held on there? I've seen stock images but never any properly showing off how it works.
How much distance is between the light from the tank?

 

[PheonixKingZ]

That's pretty much the sort of look I'm going for (I think). How is it held on there? I've seen stock images but never any properly showing off how it works.
How much distance is between the light from the tank?

It’s held there by metal brackets that came with the light:

Do you want the distance from the light to the surface of the water? Or the distance from the light to the tank rim?

 

[PlasticGalaxy]

It’s held there by metal brackets that came with the light:
View attachment 130181
Do you want the distance from the light to the surface of the water? Or the distance from the light to the tank rim?

Sorry, should have been clearer - I mean that I'd like the distance from the light to the water's surface. I'm a bit of clutz and often bump into lights when I'm taking my hand out of the tank, so a good amount of space is basically a must for me.

 

[PheonixKingZ]

Sorry, should have been clearer - I mean that I'd like the distance from the light to the water's surface. I'm a bit of clutz and often bump into lights when I'm taking my hand out of the tank, so a good amount of space is basically a must for me.

For me it’s around 2 inches.

I haven’t found that much of an issue with bumping the light when I’m trimming and such. I usually just scoot the light to the back of the tank.

With hanging the light, I imagine you would have more issues, because you couldn’t easily take it off.

(That’s another thing with the Nicrew. It has a break away near the on/off switch, that you can easily remove and take the light completely off the tank. (Of course then you can’t see the fish/plants ))