My New Tank - Lighting Help Needed

[oldwhitewood]

Hey guys, I thought I would show you some pictures of my new tank, this is going to be my ADA style open topped rimless tank. I have had a load of trouble actually getting a tank and making a cabinet. My first cabinet was made out of mdf and looked awful, so I decided to try and get one made out of oak but the guy quoted about £350 for doing it, so eventually I have made my own out of kitchen doors. I think it looks ok, its not exactly the same as an ADA cabinet but its a good compromise.

I plan to get an eheim ecco external filter for this, lights I am still musing over, really I want to get the arcadia 4 t5 100cm luminaire but I am worried its not going to have enough light, what do you guys think?

 

[Discomafia]

How big is the tank, and what are its dimensions?
How heavily do you want to plant the tank?
Willing to use CO2 and/or ferts?
How many watts are the Arcadia 4 t5 100cm?

 

[oldwhitewood]

How big is the tank, and what are its dimensions?
How heavily do you want to plant the tank?
Willing to use CO2 and/or ferts?
How many watts are the Arcadia 4 t5 100cm?

the tank is 100 by 40 by 40 cm
heavily planted
yes to the CO2 and ferts

I think each tube is 39w each,

*muses*

 

[Discomafia]

That works out to be 44 gallons if I'm not wrong, so I think that 78watts of lighting, since it's t5, should be enough...

 

[kenneth_kpe]

i think it will look nice ! the arcadia lamp is raised right ? and am i correct i googled the arcadia and it contains 2 14,000 kelvin lamps and two marine blue ? are you planning on changing those bulbs ? 4 bulbs at 39 watts each ... that would give you about 156 watts roughly 3.6 wpg... since its a 43 gallon i would say with the right temperature and good fertilization you could grown any plant you want even if the requirements of the plant is high lighting ! : )

*somebody correct me if im wrong

*ps is that your tank in the reflection ?

 

[zig]

Very nice tank.......cabinet looks excellent for a diy job very good indeed, imo it looks the part, the tank is just a tad bigger than 42 US gallons (the same volume as my own tank) on mine i run a Eheim 2215 and i think this is the perfect filter for this tank size, the Eheim classic series are better made than the ecco series they also hold more filter media, quite a lot more depending on the ecco filter you buy, the classics only come with the foam inserts but these are more than adaquate imo as a lot of the filtration is done by the plants anyway, that would be my choice anyway just something to keep in mind.

But very nice any ideas on the layout yet?

 

[jimbooo]

how many tubes are in the luminare, 2 or 4 at 39W?

 

[zig]

Its loads of light @ 3.7 WPG the 100cm luminaire holds 4x39 watt T5 tubes as far as i know.

 

[jimbooo]

that is what i was hoping. in that case perfect and i want one as well

 

[oldwhitewood]

Thanks guys, especially for the comments on the cabinet, I really wanted to make one look like an ADA cabinet, see here...not a great picture but you can get the general idea....

But it looked crap when we made it so we had to re-design it, I think it looks ok, but I mean I would love to get a real ADA cabinet, I reckon they would cost about £1000 though just for the tank and cabinet alone. This has cost me about £200 for tank and cabinet so far.

I would like to use the T5s as they are the cheapest lighting option I can think of, I was going to have two 150w metal halides but that would be about £300-£400 at the cheapest and probably be too much for the tank, in terms of heat and light. I just need to find out what colour temp the arcadia plant pro tubes are, I've read some reports on here that say they look horrible, which worries me .

Very nice tank.......cabinet looks excellent for a diy job very good indeed, imo it looks the part, the tank is just a tad bigger than 42 US gallons (the same volume as my own tank) on mine i run a Eheim 2215 and i think this is the perfect filter for this tank size, the Eheim classic series are better made than the ecco series they also hold more filter media, quite a lot more depending on the ecco filter you buy, the classics only come with the foam inserts but these are more than adaquate imo as a lot of the filtration is done by the plants anyway, that would be my choice anyway just something to keep in mind.

But very nice any ideas on the layout yet?

Thankyou sir.

Regarding the layout I will do what I always do, try and copy one of Amano's designs and fail!