Lighting For Planted Tank

[miata]

HELP!! I'm setting up a 75 gal fw planted aquarium and trying to decide what light fixture to purchase in order to grow healthy, beautiful aquarium plants and don't want to limit myself to low light plants only. I'm considering Orbit, Coral Life and Satellite. I am using a glass canopy and would like my light to sit flush on the canopy if possible, on legs I see a reflection on the glass which I think is very distracting. The 48" Orbit has 4 fans and 4x96w bulbs, 48" Satellite has 1 fan and 4x65w bulbs, I do not know what Coral Life fans or wattage is and all of them have moon leds which I want.
I also will add a Co2 device but am a little confused as to what to buy, maybe one that will also auto monitor my ph.
I am also considering a uv sterilizer which I probably will get from Goldfish.com (25watt & includes it's own pump) so it's light & size is compatible with the pump.
I am going to use Eco-complete as my substrate.
My tank is 48"Lx18"Wx20"D.
I hope to get lots of feedback. I don't think I need to say, this is my first attempt at a planted tank.
tks,
John.

 

[Themuleous]

Hi and welcome to the forum

Jumping in at the deep end hey?

Right the first thing you need to do is read the pinned threads in particular the ones on lighting, co2 and the estimative index. Then you need to decide what kind of tank you want -> high light/tech or low light/tech. As a very brief summary the two are as follows

High light/tech - lots of everything! Lots of light (over 2Watts Per Gallon ish), fertilisers (added daily), co2, plants and money! The good thing with this is you can grow pretty much anything but the tank will be more demanding and if you slip up it won't be very forgiving.

Low light/tech - pretty much the opposite. Lower light (under 2WPG), no need to dose fertilisers as often perhaps only weekly. Co2 is useful but not essential. The limit with this system is the plant choice, as you cant have the more demanding species, however the choice is still quite large and you'd be able to make a great scape. There is much more room of error with this system. The lower light levels mean that if you slip up the tank wont punish you quite as much.

If you are new to the hobby I suggest you start with a low light system and take it from there. That's not to say you couldn't do high light/tech but people sometimes start with that, end up with a tank fully of algae and then give up and we dont want that

Sam

 

[SuperColey1]

As per what Sam says. I think its becoming more comon these days for people 'in the know' to ignore the rules and use lower light for supposedly high light plants (this is due to the rule being useless and also lights getting much better since it was calculated)

Both the fixxtures you talk of are very very high light. You have a large tank and therefore need less light than an average 20-40USG tank so I would aim for somewher in the region of either:

(T5 or power compact)
Around 140W total - If you are using CO2
70 - 105W total - If you are not using CO2

You will definately need pressurised CO2 with that sized tank if you go anywhere near 2 WPG. A yeast setup will be impossible to maintain for that size.

A UV is a good idea and both Sam and I use them. More for a 'just in case' than anything else.

Forget about a Ph monitor because if linked to the CO2 it will turn the CO2 off when you reach a certain Ph. This will defeat the issue because you want the CO2 to remain stable during the photoperiod and not turning off and on all the time. They are very much an 'old school' method and therefore lots of people seem to advise you should get them. As long as you set your CO2 up carefully so that it doesn't overdose (>30ppm) then your fish will be fine and the Ph will drop by 1ish (unless you have very low KH)

Andy

 

[Colin_T]

Personally I wouldn't waste my time with a UV unit for a sinlge planted tank. If you introduce a new fish and it has a disease the disease will be in the water as soon as the fish is in the water. The disease will also be on the fish. By the time the UV unit sterilises all the water every fish in the tank will have come in contact with the disease. Save your money and spend it on the plants.
If you are concerned about diseases getting into the tank get a quarantine tank.

 

[SuperColey1]

A UV unit pays for itself within a year.

In a house with ambient temperature of 21ºC you need a heater for the water.

Mine is 200W.
The lights warm the water a little.
The UV on for 24hours does a great job.

200W versus 8W for virtually the same temperature. I hear my heater click on and click straight back off so in my calcs will save me £50 a year in electricity costs and it cost.......£54

It is also a preventative measure towards algae and future disease prevention. They will kill floating algae spores that have not already attached to plants and therefore reduce the fight against algae

To say that diseases are only introduced from external sources like new fish and new plants is incorrect. A lot of parasites live in the substrate and only get to your current fish is they weaken for any reason. Every tank has the causes of disease hiding away in it but healthy fish can fight it. therefore if they are in the water they can be killed. Therefore it is very useful against disease.

Andy

 

[Themuleous]

I like my UV as it gets rid of my dam green water in around 2 days, its worth its weight in gold IMHO for that reason alone

Sam

 

[miata]

Thanks everyone for all your comments and help. I'm digesting it all, along with everything else I read. I'm surprise to read that I would need less light in a larger tank than a small one, can someone explain that to me or was it a misprint?

 

[Themuleous]

You dont need less light per se, you need less light comparatively. I.e. for a small tank, say 10g, you might need 3-4WPG to have sufficient light, however for a larger tank say over 100g you might only need 2WPG to have sufficient light.

To be honest I dont really know the reason why and I dont really care either. The whole WPG 'rule' is very old, and was desinged in the US for tanks of around 30-40USg. It also works on using T12 tubes as I understand it. So trying to relate this to modern T5 light is pretty vague to say the least.

George, has a different system

1 tubes = low light
2 tubes = mid light
3 tubes = mid to high light
4 tubes = high light
5+ tubes = very high light.

In many ways this is easier to follow, but still has its draw backs depending on the type of light you use, T8, T5, power compact, etc.

Hope that helps

Sam