Up-grading My Lighting

[Miss Wiggle]

Right I've just re-planted and re-arranged one of my 30ish g (4 foot long) tanks. some pics here

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=149226

The light bulbs on the way out and I was planning on replacing it this month. Just worked out my money for the month and it seems I have a fair bit of spare cash and nothing I need to buy. So I thought sod it I'll upgrade the lighting a bit as at the moment it's just a bog standard starter unit and bulb.

I just want something that's going to allow me to easily maintain and slightly improve on the current level of planting. I'm not wanting to go uber planted like some of you guys (although I think it looks lovely... one step at a time!) just be able to maintain a healthy balance of fishes and plants.

I'm also wanting to get rid of the condensation tray's so I'd need condensation proof bulbs etc.

So can anyone suggest a lighting set up that would do this for me? Thanks

 

[Themuleous]

Coudl jsut add another ballast and tube? They are waterproof and easy to add. How much lighting do you have at the mo WPG? and how big is the tank?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

the tank's just over 30g and 4 foot long.

I've just got a bog standard fluro tube in at the moment, can't remember off the top of my head what w it is, maybe 30/40 ?

 

[Themuleous]

There is normally a way of adding more light, you could always get T5's or power compact T5's if space is an issue. Are you wanting to do EI or will this be a low light tank, say below 2WPG?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

nah I don't want to get into the heavily planted, EI and co2 type stakes. All a bit complex and expensive for me. I'm quite happy to stick to hardy and low light plants, but I'd just like to be able to get the to grow properly.

Be no point me getting somethign like t5's..... they'd last 5 mins in my tank before Ian robbed them for his I was teasing him I might get myself an arcadia I bar cos I know he wants one

But no I think just getting another bulb and unit might be the way forward, probably a good compromise between the rubbish light I have now and uber lighting for proper planted tanks

 

[Themuleous]

Yeh sounds like a plan, you can always upgrade to EI light levels later if you want to. Changing your existing tubes to plant specific ones would also help BTW and adding reflectors if you've not already got them

Sam

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Yeh sounds like a plan, you can always upgrade to EI light levels later if you want to. Changing your existing tubes to plant specific ones would also help BTW and adding reflectors if you've not already got them

Sam

cool, i'll have a look round some lfs's this weekend.

Is there anything to really look out for with bulbs, makes that are good or anything like that? .... I've always just gone for the cheapest option

Seem to remember something about DIY reflectors, either just get a bit of metal and bend it or paint the inside of the hood white, something like that? Or am I just talking rubbish

 

[Themuleous]

The pinned lighting article has a list of the best plant tubes (you can't expect me to do all the work for you ) but things to look out for are that it has three spikes in the colour spectrum, in the blue, green and red wavelengths. I would also avoid anything that's got a really high or low Kelvin rating, aim for something between 5500 to 6500k.

Oh crap, here you go found myself having to check the kelvin thing so might as well save you the trouble!

Plant tubes

Dennerle - Special-Plant 3000K Warm, yellow/orange
Hagen - Life-Glo 6700K Bright, cool white
Arcadia - Freshwater Lamp 7500K Cool white/green
Zoo Med - Tropic-Sun 5500K Warm white
Zoo Med - Ultra-Sun 6500K Bright Cool white
Interpet - Triton/Triplus 8300K Bright white/purple
Interpet - Daylight Plus 6500K Cool white

I wouldn't make a DIY reflector they aren't expensive, you only need to buy them once and things like foil are not flat enough and so are much, much less effective than you would think.

Sam

 

[Miss Wiggle]

ah but your so much better at it than me.

see it's wierd get me to research fish and compatibility and water conditions etc I get it all straight off, it stays in my head and I can dealwith it perfectly. Soon as I attempt it with equpiment and technology I just get confused and can't cope with it. Think it's just cos I can't get enthusiastic over machines like I can with fish, so it just doesn't stay in my head.

just makes me think

women know your place

thanks

 

[Themuleous]

Haha fair enough! I guess I'm just a nerd who likes to learn stuff, it also gives me something to do at work, its not like I'm here to make the company money or anything! What am I going to be like when I venture into marine fish!

Sam

 

[Miss Wiggle]

me either....... well i'm not meant to make money, i'm meant to put your council tax to good use ......... i think this is a great use of it

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Hagen - Life-Glo 6700K Bright, cool white

well after much searching, we struggled to find any of the ones you mentioned... well we found plenty but not in the right size to fit the tank ended up getting the one below this, sun-glo something like 4500k so not quite as good as i wanted, but better than what I had before so it's still an upgrade! Hopefully it'll be plenty enough to get my plants going well

thanks for all the help sam