woohooo! new tank, now I need a new light, will this work?

[nealio]

This weekend my mom won the best mom in the world contest by surprising me with a new fish tank! She knew my current set up is overstocked, so she went to petsmart and bought a 28g bowfront. *celebrate (I had a 10g)

So I turned on the light it came with and it sucked. It’s a daylight florescent @17w. I have two compact florescent bulbs, but no where to plug them in, so I took out my dremel and did some cutting to the old hood and now I have two 10w 50/50 10,000k/03 antic lights and the 17w, but its really ugly on top of a nice new tank, so I'm in the market for a new light that will have enough power to light this bad boy up.

I found THIS and it seemed to be what I was looking for, it has a 6500k/10,000k and a antic 03 with a lunar light for about $100 @ 65W x 2. It’s the best deal I have found so far.

This is a planted tank so I read that I needed at least 2w per gallon. Will this do a good job? Or is there another recommendation?

Thanks again for all your help guys!

 

[Igor The Cat]

yeah those are good lights but you might consider DIY, cheaper and can be much prettier, and a planted does not NEED 2WPG, as i have done multiple succesfull lowlight tanks with uner 1WPG, but more light helps (until you go crazy and end up with 6WPG and the plants need so much CO2 the fish suffocate...yes i AM pointing at myself)

cheers

-Java

 

[JustOneMore20]

That light will be good IMO. But, with actinic bulbs, plants are supposedly only able to use 50% of the light given off. That is good for this fixture though. I multiplied it out and it will give you about 3.5wpg. That is great light, but you will need some type of CO2 injection, whether it be DIY or pressurized. Without it, you will most likely have an algae problem.

If you are fine with having CO2, then that fixture will be great. You will have a huge plant selection and will be able to have a nicely planted tank. If you'd rather not have CO2, I can search on some of the sites I visit and see if I can find a lower watt fixture that is outside of the CO2 realm.

How long is your tank? I'm not familiar with a 28g bow.

 

[nealio]

Well this is 130w so it would be 4.64w per gallon, but from what I heard so far the antic blue and the 10k light wouldn't be as beneficial as the 6500k light... So I'm guestamating that I would have a bit over 2.3W per gallon of useable light. Out of the 130w

I was thinking about DIY setup, but I don’t really know what I'm doing when it comes to wiring a lighting set up. I have seen those florescent lights ballasts at home depot, so I’m sure I could figure out something, but this light seemed way more low profile, and it also comes with the lunar light, all for about $100.

If I got this light, would I need Co2?

Thanks again!

 

[nealio]

That light will be good IMO. But, with actinic bulbs, plants are supposedly only able to use 50% of the light given off. That is good for this fixture though. I multiplied it out and it will give you about 3.5wpg. That is great light, but you will need some type of CO2 injection, whether it be DIY or pressurized. Without it, you will most likely have an algae problem.

If you are fine with having CO2, then that fixture will be great. You will have a huge plant selection and will be able to have a nicely planted tank. If you'd rather not have CO2, I can search on some of the sites I visit and see if I can find a lower watt fixture that is outside of the CO2 realm.

How long is your tank? I'm not familiar with a 28g bow.

Hey Kristin! Thanks for your help again!

I'm almost positive its 24' long. I will measure it at lunch time to make sure. Its way taller than the other 20g I had.

I like the variety of lights **the blue and the 10k and lunar** that’s why I picked this one out. If I have to get Co2 right away, I might want to re-think this. I'm trying to find a stand for it right now so I can set up the sump tank underneath. Maybe I should hold off on the light until I get the sump set up. That way I can just house the Co2 with the sump. I'm in a pretty cramped spot right now due to the larger tank.

 

[GIS Guy]

*cough* my thread *cough*
http://www.myfishtank.net/forum/do-yourself/40164-diy-lighting-very-easy.html

 

[nealio]

NICE GIS GUY! *celebrate

I might try that out, but I still wouldn't get as much light as I would with the other set up. Since the tank was free, I don’t mind dropping a couple bucks on the lighting and Co2 if I need to.

I think I’m going to stop by tap plastics this weekend to see if I can manufacture my own hood, and add the two CF lights with the other light that came with the tank.

One quick question, can you just hook up those to outlets to the main power cord by splicing them together to the power cord? The old hood already has the two sockets and all the hardware I need to slap them together, I just need to come up with a rig to hold them all together that is aesthetically pleasing.

Thanks again!

 

[nealio]

How long is your tank? I'm not familiar with a 28g bow.

24" confirmed

 

[JustOneMore20]

Well this is 130w so it would be 4.64w per gallon, but from what I heard so far the antic blue and the 10k light wouldn't be as beneficial as the 6500k light

The actinic isn't as beneficial, but the 10000K light is. If its a 50/50 bulb, then its half actinic and half 10000K...so half of the light is useable.

Its hard to calculate exactly how much wattage would be useable. You could use just the 6500K bulb and have 2.3wpg, like you said. With that light, you'd be borderline for needing CO2. I have 2.4wpg over my 55g and just added a Red Sea Turbo CO2 (basically premade DIY). I had some algae problems before, but thats probably because in the beginning I didn't have many plants, so the algae got started early. I believe that if you put alot of plants in at first, with that light, then you'd be fine without CO2. Especially if you get alot of fast growing stem plants. When I changed out my substrate and replanted with alot of plants...I have little algae. And the single Red Sea thing doesn't do much IMO...I really need to get another for it to really benefit my plants.

If you were to use the actinic bulb as well, I'd be safe and get some CO2 hooked up. You can google DIY CO2 and find lots of different ways to set it up. And it isn't too expensive.

Congrats on getting another tank! You are well on your way to MTS (multiple tank syndrome). Welcome to the club!

 

[GIS Guy]

Yes the sockets can be connected right to the main electrical cord.
You can use either heat shrink or wire nuts.
Heat shrink is going to be much neater, but will obstruct maintenance.

I was able to fit 3 bulbs in a 24" fixture.
The bulbs are 20w + 20w + 25w = 65w.
I could have used all 25w for 75w on the 20g for 3.75wpg.
You may want to look for higher wattage CFs.
My Lowes did not carry 6500K bulbs so I got them from WalMart.

I have found that a fair amount of ventilation is required.
Those CFs do get hot enough to warp the plastic vents.
To counter this I will be drilling ventilation holes on the back bottom of the fixture.