Luminaires

[Wyntah]

Lo guys,

The integrated lighting in my tank hood has given up the ghost and Im thinking of replacing the whole unit with a luminaire. However Im a little worried about how effective a luminaire would be on my rig. The tank is a bow front 48 inch thats about 24 inches wide (at widest section) and 24 inches deep. Its sorta shaped like this:

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(dots are for spacing purposes)

The luminaires I have seen are all less than a foot in width and Im a little worried that it would leave me with quite a lot of unlit surface area. This is my first real attempt at a planted tank so I really dont want to buy a lemon. The aquarium holds about 75 gal (according to online calcs) Im looking at a 4 tube T5 Luminaire, would that be sufficient lighting?

 

[Themuleous]

Whats the wattage of the 4 tube luminary? Are you wanting high or low light? I dont think there is an easy way to sort the lighting on bow-front tanks, esp if you want a luminary, you'd have better luck sticking new lighting under the hood, that way you'll be able to spread it out more evenly over the tank.

Sam

 

[Wyntah]

You'd have better luck sticking new lighting under the hood, that way you'll be able to spread it out more evenly over the tank.

Sam

Cheers Sam, that was my thoughts on it too, it'll work out more pricey but its better to be safe than waste cash on something unsuitable.