Advice for lighting a 150G 6 Foot Tank Please

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C

Cicho

Candiru
MFK Member
Nov 29, 2010
117
1
48
Bergen County, NJ
I am installing a new tank at my home and wanted to tap some lighting resources here due to the tank sizes common on this board. I have been looking at these cheap T5 setups from Odyssea but I am open to other brands as well. I only run the light when viewing the tank so it will likely only get about 6 hours of use per week on average. I am open to other lighting technologies as well so I am very interested in the feedback.

Goal: To have a tank well lit and uniform but not be an algae machine.

The tank will be a standard 150 gallon, 72” long x 18” deep x 27” tall.
Light location: I will be building a custom canopy for the tank so I could suspend the lamp within the canopy to give the light a change to spread.
Target fish: Rift lake cichlids
Substrate: 3M ColorQuartz Type S in white
Plants: None

Some general options:
A: (2) 36” units with dual T5’s providing 78W each for 156W total power. Is this enough power?
B: (2) 36” units with quad T5’s providing 156w each for 312W total power.
C: (1) 48” unit with quad T5’s providing 216w total power. Will I have shadowing in the tank corners?
D: (1) 72” unit with quad T5’s providing 320W total power. I’m concerned about ease of service since I would have to remove the entire lamp for good tank access.
E: None of the above

Let me hear your thoughts and THANKS!
 
Wow talk about power. I would personally go with a a single 48" unit with dual T5's (or even just a single T5). It will provide ample lighting, and allow for some shade in the corners so the fish have somewhere to retreat to if they wish.
If the shadowing concerns you, then the two 36" dual units is what i would get.
 
I would say the 36" duals would put out enough light for viewing since you are not trying to grow plants and will consume much less power for when you do run them
 
I have recently started using the LED fixtures from Marineland. A 48" Double Bright would IMO give a nice light with a shimmering effect while providing some shadowing in the corners which I like. This is the type of lighting I use on my 220 SA tank, you could always go with 2 x 36" fixtures also if you want a fully lite tank which would also give a nice effect. I don't like a very brightly lite tank if I'm not trying to grow plants because of the potential for algea. Coral Life has also come out with a nice compact double T5 fixture if you like the more traditional look of Flourescent lighting a 10K and 6700K combination is what I like in T5s. Like I said if your not growing plants then lighting just comes down to what you like to look at. I would stay away from options B & D I like option "A" the best from your choices based on what your trying to acomplish.
 
Based on the wattages you posted you're talking about T5HO lights not standard T5s. It's going to be pretty bright, so if you don't necessarily want a brightly lit tank you might not want them. Also keep in mind the bulbs that come with those discount fixtures are likely junk. I bought a 48" dual T5HO fixture from ebay and it caused my tank to grow tons of brown algae. I even moved the fixture to another tank to make sure it was the light and not another issue. Replacing the bulbs with high quality ones seems to have fixed the problem. I actually have a tank with just the single T8 aqueon fixture that arguably looks better than the one with the T5HO one.
 
Aquanero said:
I have recently started using the LED fixtures from Marineland. A 48" Double Bright would IMO give a nice light with a shimmering effect while providing some shadowing in the corners which I like. This is the type of lighting I use on my 220 SA tank, you could always go with 2 x 36" fixtures also if you want a fully lite tank which would also give a nice effect.
Click to expand...

Thanks to everybody for the great and rapid feedback!

Aquanero are you running a 48" LED DB on your 220? How long have you had it?
 
I'm using 2 x 24" DB fixtures, which I spread about 6" apart so one one of the sections of light isn't blocked by the support bars, it actually covers about 52" over the top of the tank. I like it, it's not very bright but natural looking IMO and the fish seem relaxed and out constantly as opposed to some very brightly lite tanks I had in years past where some fish seemd to hang in the resesses darting out only to grab some food. I like the look it gives and it's easier on the electric biil. Stop by and have a look if your in the area.
 
I have marineland double bright on my 30 inch deep tank.

It looks great but its for fish only. It's not strong enough for plants.

A couple of things:

1) There is only one switch so you can not automatically switch between daylight and moonlight. You must do it by hand instead of a timer
2) You will see beams of white light although it does spread pretty well.
3) if you get 2 36 inch you will have to angle the light because with the light stand, two of them will be longer than 72" by a couple of inches.(2 24 inches would work but it won't fill the entire tank with light
4) my power supply burnt out after a couple of month. Marineland replaced it for free but my tank was half dark for a couple of weeks. For $15 on ebay you can get some back ups.

Good luck with the setup!
 
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