Lighting For A Juwel Rio 300

[Smalleyboy]

I previously had a lightly planted Rio 300 using the standard 2 x 38W tubes. I have been keeping cichlids for the past 15 months but plan to move back to a planted community tank over the next few months.

I am thinking of getting an additional Juewl lighting bar which will give me a total of 4 x 38W tubes. The tank holds 300 litres which is 66 UK gallons, less a bit for substrate etc... leaves say 60 UK gallons giving 2.5WPG.

My question is will 2.5WPG give me enough light for a decent display of plants? Are there any other light fittings I could use to increase the WPG, although I don't want any hanging/ceiling mounted fittings? I'm guessing that I will need to use CO2 but I still have to get up to speed on my options. Previously when I had a planted tank I just used a fine stone substrate, but this time I'm thinking of using some sort of plant friendly substrate covered with fine stones so that the plants have something decent to grow into. What do you recommend?

Quite a bit there to consider but any advice will be welcome.

 

[zig]

The WPG guideline is measured using US gallons, you have an 80US gallon tank approx, so with your lighting upgrade you would have 1.9 WPG. I would still use CO2 at that lighting level or you will probably encounter problems with algae. The only way to get more light into your tank is add another tube or start looking at powercompacts as these generally are higher wattage, you could also consider T5 lighting but this would be an expensive option.

Edit: always use good reflectors as well, the WPG guideline assumes that you are.

 

[oldwhitewood]

You would need at least 6 T8s over your tank as the rio 300 is quite deep. Zig is spot on there with what he has said.

 

[Smalleyboy]

Thanks for that.

I have had a quick look at T5's and I could get an ASL T5 fitting which has 2 x 55W and 2 x 36W giving a total of 182W which based on 80 US gallons equates to 2.28WPG. The cost would be circa £180 for what appears to be a small gain of 0.38 WPG.

I don't know the names of any plants but I would like a fairly heavily planted tank and previously I got a pack of 110 plants from Java Plants. Approximately 60% of the plants grew well but I only had 2 x 38W and no CO2 and no special substrate.

I am hoping that by doubling my current lighting setup and adding CO2 that 95% of the plants that Java supply in their packages would grow well. I know that other companies can provide plants but I am just using Java as a reference point for the type of plants I am likely to buy.

I do understand that to get a truly beautiful planted tank you need as many WPG as you can and some people have amazing set-ups but will 1.9 WPG ofer a decent set-up?

 

[-=Joel=-]

Take a look at these units:

http/www.arcadia-uk.info/product.php?pid...=10&id=4&lan=en

Joel

 

[Smalleyboy]

Thanks for that Joel.

Using the info on the website a 1200mm long T5 gives 39W while a 1200mm long T8 gives 38W. There appears to be very little difference in the output between these. My current lights are 38W so the Arcadia units don't apear to offer any benefit.

Is there a vast difference between the T5 and T8 shown on the Arcadia website. Might be a dumb question but is a T5 W stronger than a T8 W??

 

[-=Joel=-]

T5s lighting will punch the light through the water alot better than T8s

I dont know home much better than T8s they are but im sure someone does.

Joel

 

[Smalleyboy]

Can anyone clarify the difference between a T5 and a T8 with similar Wattage outputs?

 

[Smalleyboy]

Can anyone outline if there is any difference etween T5 and T8 lamps of a similar wattage? And if so, is the difference measurable?

 

[Ginge]

Can anyone outline if there is any difference etween T5 and T8 lamps of a similar wattage? And if so, is the difference measurable?

Well i know you can fit more T5's than T8's in the hood therefore achive a higher WPG.