A little lighting help, please...

[photopro2000]

Greetings,

I currently have a 50 gallon aquarium (48"x18"x12") that I am lighting by laying a couple of dual-tube, flourescent, T12 shop lights on top of the glass covering the tank. I get a total yield of 160 watts using Phillips "Natural Sunshine" T12 lamps and my plant growth is phenominal...but so is the algae growth! My water parameters are good so I think the algae growth is due to the fact that the shop lights heat the tank up above 82°F over a 10 hour period. I try to maintain my tank at 76°F. My issue is this...

I want to upgrade my lighting to actual aquarium lighting and I need some help deciding between 2 sets of lights. Which of these lights would be most appropriate for my needs...

http://www.bigalsonline.com/catalog/product.xml?product_id=23887;category_id=1853;pcid1=1843;pcid2=

or, using 2 sets of these...

http://www.bigalsonline.com/catalog/product.xml?product_id=32853;category_id=1853;pcid1=1843;pcid2=

I am not really sure I understand which lights will give me the most illumination for the money. I get very confused about T8 and T5 designations. Which of these would run the cooler? I have hornwort, cabomba, wisteria, some saggitarius grass, a little bit of frogbit, both a red and green ludwigia, corkscrew valisneria, a couple of banana plants, and some very large amazon sword plants. The T5 fixtures come with 28w lamps but it is my understanding that T5s produce more lumens. Right? I have no idea what the output of 3 T8 lamps would be.

Any help you could provide me would be greatly appreciated. Thank you,

Tom W

 

[Lotus]

Welcome to the tank

I'd say your algae isn't because of the lighting levels, but because of a nutrient imbalance in the tank.

Do you have readings of your nitrates and phosphates? Are you adding any form of CO2? What kind of algae do you have?

You could change the bulbs in your current fixture for a slightly higher Kelvin rating (your current bulbs seem to be 5000K, you could try something around 6500K). If your bulbs are more than 6 months old, it's probably time to change them anyway.

If you really want to change the fixture, the T5 bulbs are reportedly very good.

 

[photopro2000]

Hi ya' Lotus,

I would tend to agree with you but my water parameters are just fine. Yes, I am running CO2 yielding 25 ppm of dissolved CO2. My fish aren't stressed and the plants pearl all day. When my apartment was cooler and the heater had to click on all day to maintain 76°F I didn't have an algae problem. Now that the weather is warmer, and the apartment is warmer, the heater never turns on all day but the ballasts in the lights heat the aquarium up to 82°F. This is when my algae problem started. I need lights that would provide nearly the same lumens but would run cooler and not overheat my tanks. Any suggestions, would be helpful.

Thanks,

Tom W

 

[hyunelan2]

I would say get 2 of the Coralife T-5 Fixtures. I have 2 of them in the 36" variety and have been very happy with them. They are also much 'sleeker' on the top of the tank, as they are not even 1/2 the height of the T-8 Fixture I had.