best lighting for RTG arowana ? tanning d3

strawwoodclaw

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Mar 8, 2012
119
1
0
Brighouse UK
I am wanting to buy a tanning lamp for my RTG arowana . The only problem is in the UK Arcadia only do Arowana lamps for red aro's that give off a artificial red light .

I was thinking about buying a Arcadia T5 reptile bulb 12% D3, has anybody used these with Aros? are they OK for aquariums ? what color light do they give off ? are they more likely to cause algae than other aquarium bulbs?

I would like to buy a gold Arowana lamp but I can not find any in the UK . Would the Aracdia red Arowana lamp be OK for RTG?
 

T1KARMANN

Giant Snakehead
MFK Member
Sep 19, 2005
10,105
127
147
56
London UK
you shouldnt tank gold aros its only reds that benfit from tanning thats why you can only get red lamps

if you tan a xback the shine level will drop and i would expect you would want the shine level on a RTG to be as high as poss

just use normal T5

i think tanning is cruel all fish need to rest and keeping a light on 24/7 will stress the aro and give you massive green problems
 

K_Cichlids

Plecostomus
MFK Member
Mar 25, 2010
185
41
61
not an expert but RTG and HBRTG don't require tanning. Read alot of stuffs from the web and a lot of owners said the gold color will improve as their mature so all you need is a bright white light such as T5 to help improve the shine.

good luck
 

strawwoodclaw

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Mar 8, 2012
119
1
0
Brighouse UK
I agree I wouldn't leave the light on 24/7 it was somebody else who mentioned that. I read that in the wild they have better colors due to the intense sunlight shinning down on them all day bringing out vitamin d3 keeping the fish in better condition. In Asia Arcadia sell Gold Arowana lamps as well as red aro lamps but nobody seams to sell the Gold light in the UK. I guess they will both do the same thing only the red will have artificial red light to enhance the red arowana & the gold will have a gold colour light + D3 tanning.

When natural sunlight shines on my arowana from outside my window ,my arowana looks much brighter than with my overhead t8 & t5 bulb

I think I will try the Arcadia reptile d3 bulb for 4-5 hours a day & see how she like it as well as normal lights , i keep my light on 9 hours a day
 

strawwoodclaw

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Mar 8, 2012
119
1
0
Brighouse UK
saying that if tanning makes gold or RTG shine levels go down I might give it a miss, but when natural sunlight shines on my RTG it looks very shiny & bright
 
zoomed.com
hikariusa.com
aqaimports.com
Store