background
It's been quite some time since I posted here. I got tied up in a lot of other facets of life, and the aquarium was pretty-much in a holding pattern. Unfortunately this resulted in a problem a few months ago, when oxygen levels dropped and I lost over $100 in fish. I saved a few, but my stocks are depleted. Fish are for another story though.
I ordered some new plants because mine were just not looking very good. Later, I discovered this was because one of my T-5 fixtures was only 1/2 lit. I replaced that bulb (and another for good measure) and am coming back around.
equipment
46g bowfront tank
My current light configuration is:
2x 36" Coralife T-5 dual fixtures, with a 6700 & 10K daylight bulb (21w per bulb = 84w)
1x 15w T-8 bulb.
This works out to 99w, or 2.15wpg = too low. They are timed so that at 8am, the T-8 comes on, at noon the T-5s come on, and everything goes off at 10pm.
So, I'm going to remove the one T-8 fixture and add in a 30" Power Compact @ 65w. That will give me 149w or 3.23wpg = Better.
The Question
How should I time the lights though? I was thinking of running the T-5 fixtures for the same 10 hours, and only kicking the PC lighting in for 4-5 hours - to simulate the brightest sunlight in the middle of the day. Or should I just do a standard 10 hours with all the lights on (worse for electric bills)?
Thanks! Good to be back.
It's been quite some time since I posted here. I got tied up in a lot of other facets of life, and the aquarium was pretty-much in a holding pattern. Unfortunately this resulted in a problem a few months ago, when oxygen levels dropped and I lost over $100 in fish. I saved a few, but my stocks are depleted. Fish are for another story though.
I ordered some new plants because mine were just not looking very good. Later, I discovered this was because one of my T-5 fixtures was only 1/2 lit. I replaced that bulb (and another for good measure) and am coming back around.
equipment
46g bowfront tank
My current light configuration is:
2x 36" Coralife T-5 dual fixtures, with a 6700 & 10K daylight bulb (21w per bulb = 84w)
1x 15w T-8 bulb.
This works out to 99w, or 2.15wpg = too low. They are timed so that at 8am, the T-8 comes on, at noon the T-5s come on, and everything goes off at 10pm.
So, I'm going to remove the one T-8 fixture and add in a 30" Power Compact @ 65w. That will give me 149w or 3.23wpg = Better.
The Question
How should I time the lights though? I was thinking of running the T-5 fixtures for the same 10 hours, and only kicking the PC lighting in for 4-5 hours - to simulate the brightest sunlight in the middle of the day. Or should I just do a standard 10 hours with all the lights on (worse for electric bills)?
Thanks! Good to be back.
