I am setting up a 108" long 24" tall and 26"deep tank. I bought Aquaticlife 48" 4x54w T5HO. I had originally just wanted to buy 1 set so 8 bulbs. The fs said not enough light for that tank and convinced me to buy another set for a total of 16 bulbs. I plan on a couple inches of substrate and will have a carpet and other plants and fish. I have read lots on the lighting and could not find articles for large tanks. Thanks for any info.
lighting 9ft long tank
- Thread starter nelsonpush
- Start date
Your tank is calculated around 291 US gallons.... T5HO is fine for that size of tank, lighting any planted tank is going to be a little hard when it comes down to what bulbs to use in the fixture. Bulb selection in my opinion is more important than deciding how much fertilizer/s to add to the tank lol. Bulb selection should be based on wavelength first, this is because of the following image...
The above image shows a plants chlorophyll peaks, which is very helpful when selecting bulbs to use on the tank; Here's my bulb selection for when my 45 gallon long was a planted tank.....
48" Odyssea T5HO Quad 4x54w - From front to back the bulb selection I decided on... 6400k, 12,000k white actinic, 6000k, WavePoint Ultra Growth Wave. Here's the WavePoint Ultra Growth Wave bulb wavelengths...
Because plants have 2 chlorophyll stages to them, chlorophyll A & chlorophyll B. The ultra growth wave bulb hits almost 95% of the chlorophyll peaks, and is the only bulb on the market specifically designed to cover both plant, and reef peaks to enhance growth.
The above image shows a plants chlorophyll peaks, which is very helpful when selecting bulbs to use on the tank; Here's my bulb selection for when my 45 gallon long was a planted tank.....
48" Odyssea T5HO Quad 4x54w - From front to back the bulb selection I decided on... 6400k, 12,000k white actinic, 6000k, WavePoint Ultra Growth Wave. Here's the WavePoint Ultra Growth Wave bulb wavelengths...
Because plants have 2 chlorophyll stages to them, chlorophyll A & chlorophyll B. The ultra growth wave bulb hits almost 95% of the chlorophyll peaks, and is the only bulb on the market specifically designed to cover both plant, and reef peaks to enhance growth.
While I can't give you a technical answer (I'll leave that to the experts) I would say the answer to your question is "it depends" on you goals for your planted aquarium. If you intend on higher light demanding plants than yes you'll likely need 4 fixtures (16 bulbs) which means more Co2 and ferts. If you plan your plant selection to slightly less light demanding plants than 2 fixtures (8 bulbs) should be sufficient less demand for Co2 and ferts. (I'm assuming these T5HO have better grade reflectors a simple upgrade in a fixture can improve it's efficiency.) Lighting is 1/4 of the recipe you need a balanced tank Water Quality, Ferts, Co2, and Lighting. Finding the sweet spot for your conditions is the challenge.
Good luck with your build.
Good luck with your build.
Hi Jay I am looking at a carpet plants some medium height plants and then some red plants to offset. As for the co2 I have a dual regulator coming. Thanks.
I have the 72" version of that fixture and like it. Considering T5HO and the money, I thought it was one of the better models when researching for lights. Based on where you buy it from, there may be options to select Freshwater/planted bulbs. I didn't do that (and wished I had), and ended up having to change out almost all of them.
I am going to return 1 set of the lights and go with 8 lights for my tank as they are not cheap lights. I called the light company and they said I only need 8 lights. I am gonna change one bulb in each to the Wavepoint Ultra Grow and give it a try.
Thanks.
Thanks.
The WP ultra growth wave bulb is one my favorite bulbs of all time, I used to have a 36" AquaticLife Marquise dual lamp fixture on my 30 gallon tank "36"x12"x16" and I had some big crypt florida sunset in the tank that wasn't adjusting to the water parameters. Ordered the 36" Marquise which came with 2x6000k bulbs so I swapped one out for the WP ultra growth wave bulb, and within a couple of days the crypts instantly started perking up, and within 2 weeks started sending out side shoots but I sold the fixture, needed to use the 30 gallon tank to house one of my Red Texas Cichlids and he tore right into them, but they keep coming back even under a single stock t8 light.
Good call I think you can have an amazing tank with just 8 bulbs if you plant accordingly. I've experimented with may types of foreground plants. Glosso and Marsilea by far were the easiest, for me. Monte Carlo I was trying but it was taken over by hair algae so I took it out. Dwarf Hairgrass and HC never really worked for me in my 120g at the time because the fish would rip them apart. I'm working on a bucephalandra foreground to contrast my nana petite wall but we'll see how long that takes. Curious what you have in mind for a foreground?
Hey Jay I am looking at putting some Utricularia Graminifloia in the foreground. Doesnt get tall but thats good with so much carpet.