Best lights for my new pond build???
- Thread starter BOBKAH
- Start date
A lot will depend on your expectations (naturally). I have a 2m deep indoor concrete tank with the front long side made of glass.
I installed clear skylight windows through the tiled roof above the tank spaced very 3m with a secondary 20mm polystyrene sheet inside to diffuse the light and retain heat (tropical fish). This gives the fish tank subdued natural light without algae issues during the daytime.
To artificially light the tank, I have 50 watt waterproof LED floodlights every 2.5m. I dont like seeing the shadow side of fish so I have a row of floodlights along the very front glass wall, tilted towards the middle. And a secondary row of floodlights down the center of tank but my tank is 4m wide. You wont be able to install power points inside the tank legally so your lights will need long power cords. I have 2 light switches per row of floodlight so I can turn on half a row or the full row depending on how bright I want. This was cheaper and more reliable than getting dimmable floodlights (for me). I don't have any plants in the tank but I do run a plant filter outdoors.
I choose cool white (4200 Kelvin temperature) floodlights that create a surface shimmer because I like the dappled ripple shadow effect accross the tank bottom when I turn on water currents
I have a large back wall (concrete) thats blank so during the day when the LED floodlights are off, I can cast from 3 projectors to create a virtual background scene - whatever I choose.
You should design your filtration carefully with a deep tank. The filtration aspects are more difficult than building the tank.
Good to see more large tanks being made.
I installed clear skylight windows through the tiled roof above the tank spaced very 3m with a secondary 20mm polystyrene sheet inside to diffuse the light and retain heat (tropical fish). This gives the fish tank subdued natural light without algae issues during the daytime.
To artificially light the tank, I have 50 watt waterproof LED floodlights every 2.5m. I dont like seeing the shadow side of fish so I have a row of floodlights along the very front glass wall, tilted towards the middle. And a secondary row of floodlights down the center of tank but my tank is 4m wide. You wont be able to install power points inside the tank legally so your lights will need long power cords. I have 2 light switches per row of floodlight so I can turn on half a row or the full row depending on how bright I want. This was cheaper and more reliable than getting dimmable floodlights (for me). I don't have any plants in the tank but I do run a plant filter outdoors.
I choose cool white (4200 Kelvin temperature) floodlights that create a surface shimmer because I like the dappled ripple shadow effect accross the tank bottom when I turn on water currents
I have a large back wall (concrete) thats blank so during the day when the LED floodlights are off, I can cast from 3 projectors to create a virtual background scene - whatever I choose.
You should design your filtration carefully with a deep tank. The filtration aspects are more difficult than building the tank.
Good to see more large tanks being made.
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Thanks for the info. I was planning on having the pumps pull from 3 levels in the tank(7',4',1' deep). As well as a bottom drain. I plan on having them pull from one side of the tank and then return on the other side of the same wall to get a good circular motion. I also plane on having a large bubbler on the far wall to help push the water. I will also have one return as a waterfall into the tank. I have a similar set up now. Do you have any suggestions or different ideas. I basically have a pool filter with a large UV filter. Any thoughts?
I'm not a fan of pump fed filters as the pump impellar pulverises dirt into finer particles which are harder to remove and increases maintenance frequency.
You could "suck" from those depths/areas into filter instead (gravity fed) with one or two pumps after the filtration. This also hides pumps from view and stops some inquisitive fish getting stuck or chewing species damaging power cords and sponges etc. But you may have other reasons to keep this configuration. As long as you know what you want.
With the bottom drain, there are some things to be aware of if this is your first one.
- Make sure the bottom pipe drain doesnt have any humps/hills. Air pockets will collect ruining water flow and are difficult to remove.
- Add a purge tap if possible. And an external clean out - screwed cover.
- Put a wide cover plate slightly raised over the bottom drain to improve dirt suction and stop bigger fish.
- The pipe diameter should be chosen by water flow rate. A wider diameter needs more flow otherwise sedimentation inside the pipe will occur. Sometimes 2 smaller bottom drains are better - sometimes one large drain is best. Tank floor area, tank shape, tangential returns, air diffusers etc will affect your filtration design.
The water depth of your tank lends nicely towards air lifts if you want to move lots of water volume cheaply. A 100mm (4 inch) diameter pipe thats 2.2 meter high can achieve 16,000 LPH (4000 Gallon per hour) with a 40 watt air pump with the added benefit of boosting dissolved oxygen and cooling in hot summers.
Filtration is a large topic. Build in redundancy. Keep spare parts. For a bigger tank, build a quarrantine tank too.
You could "suck" from those depths/areas into filter instead (gravity fed) with one or two pumps after the filtration. This also hides pumps from view and stops some inquisitive fish getting stuck or chewing species damaging power cords and sponges etc. But you may have other reasons to keep this configuration. As long as you know what you want.
With the bottom drain, there are some things to be aware of if this is your first one.
- Make sure the bottom pipe drain doesnt have any humps/hills. Air pockets will collect ruining water flow and are difficult to remove.
- Add a purge tap if possible. And an external clean out - screwed cover.
- Put a wide cover plate slightly raised over the bottom drain to improve dirt suction and stop bigger fish.
- The pipe diameter should be chosen by water flow rate. A wider diameter needs more flow otherwise sedimentation inside the pipe will occur. Sometimes 2 smaller bottom drains are better - sometimes one large drain is best. Tank floor area, tank shape, tangential returns, air diffusers etc will affect your filtration design.
The water depth of your tank lends nicely towards air lifts if you want to move lots of water volume cheaply. A 100mm (4 inch) diameter pipe thats 2.2 meter high can achieve 16,000 LPH (4000 Gallon per hour) with a 40 watt air pump with the added benefit of boosting dissolved oxygen and cooling in hot summers.
Filtration is a large topic. Build in redundancy. Keep spare parts. For a bigger tank, build a quarrantine tank too.
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