I am setting up an all male hap/peacock tank and wanted to get some suggestions on lighting. I bought a light based on the advice of a LFS employee, I think it was a mistake so I am looking for other lighting options. I dont want anything that costs more than $200 though.
Lighting for 75 gal tank
- Thread starter BarroomHero
- Start date
CF lights will more than likely be your best bet, you can get a nice 48" on ebay for cheap. I assume you will want high blue lighting so I would run one 420 actinic, with a 10,000K daylight which will produce a nice blue-ish/white light. Just my 2 cents.
your tank is not that deep so i rather to have a coralife double T5 ( colormax & 6700 fluorescent) that should be fine for a 75gallon tank ,you can get that at thatpetplace 48" for 60$ ..lighting is us to see the fish ( not for the fish) actinic blue is nice but i heard if u let it on too long =algae
cichlids _killer;2159877; said:
I dont have that much of a problem with algae in my tanks and I run actinic on most of them. With that in mind its more about controlling water params. I think this boils down to the old debate of low light v. high light.
CF's bulbs will last longer than VHO and run cooler. I have VHOs now on one tank, but once these bulbs need to be replaced, I will be going to CFs.
Well right now I am running a Nova Extreme 54wx2 T5HO light. It has one 10000k bulb and one 460nm bulb, it looks a little too blue and it really seems to wash out most other colors besides blue. The other problem is that there is hardly any T5HO bulbs out there. Fish look better in LFS lighting than they do in my tank.
BarroomHero;2161065; said:
there is a million t5 bulbs ou there... aqua science german bulbs are amazing and there are about 8 diff color spectrums online at thatpetplace.com or doctor fosters.
i personally used t6, t5, vho, pc... i like t5 the best if its a 4 bulb unit because you can have a wide spectrum of light, 4 bulbs with 4 diff spectrums. this makes your fish glow. others are good as well. i think power compact has the least choice with choosing color spectrum; plant growth bulb, 2 diff color artinics, a 10k and a 12k. t6 and vho have wide selection of bulbs and then there is always metal halide which is great but pricey to run if you have a large tank.
bOOsteN aUdI;2161597; said:
I could only find a few different t5ho bulbs in town. I am hesitant to buy them online because I cant really return them like I can with the ones I bought at petsmart. Are there any particular T5ho lamos that you would reccomend? I am not experienced enough in this stuff yet to really know the difference between them. My fixture is the one with 2 T5's.
I've got a Coralife Lunar Aqualight left over from my SW tank. I am currently waiting on new bulbs becuase my 10k bulbs bit the dust a few weeks ago. The 10k.actinic was nice, but just a little too blue; at least for FW. I ordered 2-65w 6700k bulbs and 2-65w Actinics; the warmth of the 6700k and the blue of the actinics should make the colors of my fish alot brighter. I'll post a pic when I get the bulbs installed.
it really depends on what your trying to do with your tank for lighting i enjoy planted tanks so in that i tend to stick to 6500k to 10000k range on bulbs but since i am broke like most hobbyist's i ended up making a hood for under 35 bucks and it grows the plants i want which is really all that matters my hood is 104 watts for under 35 bucks cant complain there the bulbs i have in there now are a little green but you can get many color ranges if you look on line for these bulbs
