Cheap full-spectrum lighting (UK)

[George Farmer]

I used to have a 48X18X18 tank display cabinet. I either had 6 or 7 Tritons in the hood. Man you used to see my plants grow. The only problem though was I also had an algea problem as well. I was pretty new then though and know nothing about lighting. But talk about bright!

Plus I had reflectors on them all as well.

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Let me guess, not enough CO2 and other nutrients to keep the balance? The cause of most people's algae in high light environments.

 

[gbnw28178]

I used to have a 48X18X18 tank display cabinet. I either had 6 or 7 Tritons in the hood. Man you used to see my plants grow. The only problem though was I also had an algea problem as well. I was pretty new then though and know nothing about lighting. But talk about bright! 

Plus I had reflectors on them all as well. 

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Let me guess, not enough CO2 and other nutrients to keep the balance? The cause of most people's algae in high light environments.

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More than likely as I'd never even heard of CO2 way back then. But I do like these new hang-on the back CO2 filters now.

 

[jimbooo]

By the way: jimbooo

I love your tank setup, looks really really nice. Do you use a CO for your plants

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thanks, yes the tank in my sig has 2 hagen nutrafin kits on it plus regurlar dosing with liquid ferts and gravel/laterite substrate.

it would be totally impossible to grow the plants that well without the CO2 (thats not supposed to sound like it does, ) cant think how else to put it)

 

[B2k2]

The new Interpet Triplus are even better. Not cheap though unfortunately (the reason I started this thread).

I'm glad you've said that gf225, this was the first bulb I purchased for my tank. When I went back to my LFS to purchase a second bulb the guy in the shop said "that ones crap mate", lol how wrong was he .

He recommended something from the Hagen line of tubes, so I bought a Sun-Glo as this seemed to be the full spectrum bulb in that range, the only thing thats confused me a little is that its 4200K. Do you think I've made a good choice of putting these bulbs together?

Think I might get another interpet bulb when the time comes to replace, probably will be the Hagen one first as the service time is lower.

 

[oldwhitewood]

I use the interpet twin 36w daylight plus T5s, I'm not kidding these are the best tubes I have ever seen for colour, they are fiddly to fit though and get pretty hot, I'm running two tubes over a rio125 at the moment and I probably need 2 more to be honest. But to my eyes I have never seen a better tube for colour and plant growth under them has been great. Prior to this I was a sun-glo man and used them with a combination of floraglo.

I was thinking of getting the plantpro arcadia tubes in a t5 unit but you guys have put me off so thanks for that, I was worried about the colour rendition and you have confirmed my fears.

 

[George Farmer]

I use the interpet twin 36w daylight plus T5s, I'm not kidding these are the best tubes I have ever seen for colour, they are fiddly to fit though and get pretty hot, I'm running two tubes over a rio125 at the moment and I probably need 2 more to be honest. But to my eyes I have never seen a better tube for colour and plant growth under them has been great. Prior to this I was a sun-glo man and used them with a combination of floraglo.

I was thinking of getting the plantpro arcadia tubes in a t5 unit but you guys have put me off so thanks for that, I was worried about the colour rendition and you have confirmed my fears.

That's interesting. I have 4 x 18W T8s in my Rio 125 - 72W. I find it is plenty of light and am hoping to grow Glosso in the near future (courtesy of RYO - cheers buddy).

How did you fit the T5s into your hood?

Any reason you didn't go for the twin 55s?

He recommended something from the Hagen line of tubes, so I bought a Sun-Glo as this seemed to be the full spectrum bulb in that range, the only thing thats confused me a little is that its 4200K. Do you think I've made a good choice of putting these bulbs together?

Should be fine but two Interpet Daylights would probably be better.

 

[oldwhitewood]

I use the interpet twin 36w daylight plus T5s, I'm not kidding these are the best tubes I have ever seen for colour, they are fiddly to fit though and get pretty hot, I'm running two tubes over a rio125 at the moment and I probably need 2 more to be honest. But to my eyes I have never seen a better tube for colour and plant growth under them has been great. Prior to this I was a sun-glo man and used them with a combination of floraglo.

I was thinking of getting the plantpro arcadia tubes in a t5 unit but you guys have put me off so thanks for that, I was worried about the colour rendition and you have confirmed my fears.

That's interesting. I have 4 x 18W T8s in my Rio 125 - 72W. I find it is plenty of light and am hoping to grow Glosso in the near future (courtesy of RYO - cheers buddy).

How did you fit the T5s into your hood?

Any reason you didn't go for the twin 55s?

Well before I had 5 18w t8s in my 125, the two juwels and a mixture of sun glo's and flora glo's, I got a good carpet of glosso growing but to be honest I reckon I could've added another tube. Depends on the plants I guess but you should be ok.

I have them now sorta lying on the middle brace and balancing on the rim of the tank with blu tack, trust me this is a ridiculous method but what can I say I love the effect. I didn't go for the 55w because I thought they would've been too powerful. The 36w ones are very short though and hard to fit in the juwel hoods, plus they run extremely hot round the rubber sockets that hold the tubes. I bought them because I was at a stage where my T8s ran out and you know how expensive they are to replace, had I known about this source you've found I would've just got the T8s instead I think.

 

[RYO]

Lol i use 2 x 36w interpet twin daylight plus T5s in my 60L and they are a real pain to fit, the clips are pants, so ive rigged mine using stainless steel wire (freebee from work lol) the colour is pretty cool ,cant say that for the tubes though(dont need a heater with these things lol)

 

[George Farmer]

Well before I had 5 18w t8s in my 125, the two juwels and a mixture of sun glo's and flora glo's, I got a good carpet of glosso growing but to be honest I reckon I could've added another tube. Depends on the plants I guess but you should be ok.

I've had 6 T8s running before now! 2 x 30" 25W and 4 x 24" 18W - a mix of Dennerle 3000K, Arcadia 7500K, Life-Glo 6700K and Triplus 8300K(?). It was when I had lots of H polysperma and difformis after a stripdown and substrate change. Needless to say you could almost see the Hygros growing. Nitrate and phosphate consumption was unreal, I was dosing 5ppm NO3 and 0.3ppm PO4 per day! I had slight algae on my rear glass that I assume was possibly a consequence of potassium deficiency.

The problem with all the tubes so tightly packed was the inefficiency of the light source i.e. lots of light bouncing between the tubes. I could only fit 4 reflectors in too.

In terms of actual light my 4 x 18W (2.1 WPG) produce nearly what the 6 tubes (3.6 WPG) did due to the increased effeciency of my 4 tubes and decently spaced reflectors etc. i.e. all the light points downward.

As suggested I will swap all 4 tubes to these cheap 6500K Daylights when necessary.

On a side point - the T5 PCs, due to the design of the physical tubes i.e. two tubes packed tightly, this seems somewhat inefficient.

 

[oldwhitewood]

Like you guys have both said they are ineffcient and pump out so much heat its amazing, I'm thinking about ordering these ones you mention and just doing away with them as they are a bugger to fit, before I had my tubes attached to each other with tie wraps, it was murder to work in the tank though which is why I'm now leading towards having an open topped tank.

 

[George Farmer]

Personally I like the look of the Arcadia Overtank Luminaire. They do a 32" 4 x 24W T5 that would be perfect for my Rio 125. I'd use 6500K tubes.

I've seen them for about £160. mmmmm.......Christmas soon!

 

[donkey]

even cheaper .i payed £3:30 for this one at B&Q and thats a four foot .even cheaper for a smaller one . my plants pearl like mad under them

this is what it says on the box and the tube

 

[George Farmer]

Awesome stuff. Off to B&Q this weekend me thinks!

 

[zig]

Excellent find donkey..........i ll have check out the branch of B&Q over here as well, ill post back if i find them.......really good find.

 

[donkey]

glad to help out mate