Lighting a 6ft tank?

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
I'm in the process of building a new hood for my 110.
I'm using 8 x 24w, 6500k compact fluorescent 'spiral' lights for day lighting and 2 x 18w, 2700k CFLs on a seperate timer for sunset and sunrise.

Even with just the 6500k units on, the light is a bit yellow so it might not work for everyone. I find that it brings out the colours of my clown loaches so I like it.
 
stynski86;4081706; said:
Cypher1024 can you post some pic please? I purchased these lighting kit off ebay :
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280493331462&ssPageName=ADME:B:EOIBSA:GB:1123
and 2 tubes:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170474568894
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180494807781
That should do i think :D
Click to expand...

That looks good. I was considering running two of those Hagen ballasts and four tubes on my 6 footer.

I've got all of my new lights in a temporary rig at the moment to see how it looks. I'll post some pics in a few hours when the lights are on.
 
i have a 48 in light on my 6 ft 125 gal. it was 10 dollars at home depot... its a bulb made by Philips: Plant And Aquarium
 
As promised, here are the pictures. Sorry in advance for the crappy quality. I was using my little brother's DSLR and I have almost no idea how to use it. The photos aren't 100% accurate at conveying the colour temperatures or intensities of the lights, but they should give you a basic idea of what it looks like.

I should also point out that everything on top of the tank is temporary - I'm just testing this stuff before I build my hood. Please don't flame me because it looks like a blind hobo put it together. When I finally get around to doing the hood it will match the cabinet.

The first picture is the rope light moonlight. It is very dim, and can be difficult to make out a lot of the fish unless all of the lights in the room are off.

The second picture is the sunrise/sunset lamps. They are dim enough for all of my clown loaches to be out and active, but bright enough for everything to be seen easily.

The third picture is the daylight lamps. They should keep the plants alive, but they are a little bright for the bigger loaches so they'll only come out if I bribe them with food.

1 moonlight.jpg

2 sunrise.jpg

3 daylight.jpg
 
Depending on whether you have a canopy or not and how it'd look, you could also overlap 2 4 footers. So the middle two feet would be really bright and the outer edges lit but not super bright. This also gives you flexibility to mess with different bulbs too.

Or put one four footer in the middle and just leave a foot on either end unlit. It still gets light, just not as much, and some fish prefer that. This is how I have my 125 lit. In fact, I just have one 48" 40w regular fluorescent over it. It all depends on your fish and plant life.
 
cypher1024, the light look great. I dont see much with the moon lighting but if you say it looks better when all lights are out I think you have something going for you.
 
My lights are mounted to my cannopy but i went with 4 3' single tubed from lowes it cost me like $50 and i wired them into a standers wall switch. Looks real slick on my cannopy. i used the blask switches and switch plate.
 
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