More light for my 35 hex tank.

[JasonG75]

I'll say it again, you've been warned..IF you are not going the co2 route (and no NOT DIY) you want to stay away from HO unless the light is raised a couple of inches from the top and according to your post "The wife has already said no hanging fixtures" thats not an option.

It appears you can probably get away with a SINGLE t5ho bulb on top of the tank, which will give you low light.

Look here at the Diagram....
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?73446-Lighting-a-Planted-Tank/page5


Go by this diagram to determine plants needs. Are you wanting more light dependant plants? easy plants? Medium Plants. This the determining factor when it comes to lighting. You could end up buying a unit which produces more lighting than your plants can use and then WELL the algae will use the rest.

 

[Racersk]

I'll say it again, you've been warned..IF you are not going the co2 route (and no NOT DIY) you want to stay away from HO unless the light is raised a couple of inches from the top and according to your post "The wife has already said no hanging fixtures" thats not an option.

It appears you can probably get away with a SINGLE t5ho bulb on top of the tank, which will give you low light.

Look here at the Diagram....
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?73446-Lighting-a-Planted-Tank/page5


Go by this diagram to determine plants needs. Are you wanting more light dependant plants? easy plants? Medium Plants. This the determining factor when it comes to lighting. You could end up buying a unit which produces more lighting than your plants can use and then WELL the algae will use the rest.

Awesome I will start in on reading this post-I don't know what PAR is or how much I need-I'm sure it's all in the read.

I have a water onion in the tank and some water sprite for now, but I think low to med light would suffice. If I only need one T5HO light, then I think I have the solution already.

I looked though my inventory of lighting and found an older dual socket fixture that fits the 20" footprint(almost) was originally fitted with 10 watt incandesents. I have x2 40watt equivelent CFL bulbs (6500K rated G/E @ 7watts each) that should have as much output as the single 18" T5 HO 13watt at the right temp range. The tank sure seams much brighter. I figure that I went from ~400-410 lumens (after much searching) with the single T8 bluish light up to about 1000 lumens of daylight with the dual CFL's.

I'll read up on what I actually need and see if I even need to buy another fixture. Thanks Jason for the heads up and link!

 

[JasonG75]

I'll read up on what I actually need and see if I even need to buy another fixture. Thanks Jason for the heads up and link!

No problem at all..All you owe me is ALL the time and water changes and algae killers it took me to learn this very hard lesson so now YOU wont have to. LOL

 

[Racersk]

I just want to be sure that my plants set up a great root system!

I have a single fist sized fancy goldfish in the tank with various cory cats and *just* got some peacock eels-diggers and munchers! I need to be sure these plants grow as well as they did in my specific planted tank... 6 CFLs over a 29 gallon! But this tank is STUFFED with the same spite and onions, among others... The onion I pulled from this tank grew about 1-1.5 feet in the short time I had it in there...with surprisingly little algae growth.

 

[JasonG75]

The onion I pulled from this tank grew about 1-1.5 feet in the short time I had it in there...with surprisingly little algae growth.

Crinum thaianum or crinum calamistratum ?

 

[Racersk]

Crinum thaianum or crinum calamistratum ?

Crinum thaianum for sure

 

[Heygetsmart]

I had a 27G hex a few months ago. It was a dirted tank.. and the only lighting I ever used was a trio of 25W CFL! It's not too pretty, but I'm sure you can make a nice hood to fit over the top of it! I used the metal clamp on lights. I was amazed how cost efficient it was, and how much my plants LOVED it! I was pruning every other week!

Hope this helps!

 

[octavusprime]

I just bought a dual 20 inch t5 off eBay. 40 bucks with bulbs! Plants are happy if it had some moonlights it would be better but meh.

 

[Racersk]

I am going to try the dual CFL 7watt bulbs I have in there now. I have fetilized and added Flourish for the carbon as well. I have hte lights on 12 hours a day and so far have not seen any browning or curling of the leaves on the water sprite in there, the onion is doing good too as far as I can tell. Time will decide weather or not I need more light than I have now...

I saw those T5HO fixtures on Ebay-tempting, but as stated earlier in this post-I don't want algae I want healthy plants... ;-)

Thanks for the inputs!