Question about lighting my 460 gallon Aquarium

[Adam Hugo]

Hello All,

I have recently started building a 460 gallon aquarium (80'x45'x30'), and am wondering what the best light would be to light my aquarium. My plan with the aquarium was to fill it up a little less than 1/2 of the way and create a paludarium with plants growing fully emersed, floating, and submersed. I have been looking at LED strips, led pendants, and t5s and am unsure on what the best option is. As my tank is a strange dimension, most LED strips don't fit perfectly and if I were to go the Kessil, Ecotech, Halo route the cost would add up quick. Does anyone have any ideas?

Thanks,

Adam

 

[mrrobxc]

Dr fosters and Smith has a 20% off right now and can be used for the halos. You can pick up one deluxe unit and two basics and daisy chain them together.

With that depth you definitely want pendants. Strips will require you to load up on them with 4-6 minimum staggered to illuminate the tab sufficiently to grow some of the more demanding plants. I highly recommend you go with a Pendant. Ecotech and Kessil are the flagships but aquaticlife has always put out good products. I wouldn’t trust the knock off ebay brands . I myself picked up three halos for my 535 build.

That being said, a local LFS uses husky brand LED pendants from Home Depot and hasnsuccess growing some of the less demanding plants with it hung from a bar over the tank. Here are some pics below.

I love doing paludariums and I highly recommend playing around on dendroboard for more specific advice and answers. Your tank is going to be really cool and look forward to pics.

Lastly, look up epiweb or ecoweb. It’s a cool fabric you can attach to the back wall of your aquarium and you can use it as a planting medium for mosses and epiphyte plants.

 

[Adam Hugo]

Dr fosters and Smith has a 20% off right now and can be used for the halos. You can pick up one deluxe unit and two basics and daisy chain them together.

With that depth you definitely want pendants. Strips will require you to load up on them with 4-6 minimum staggered to illuminate the tab sufficiently to grow some of the more demanding plants. I highly recommend you go with a Pendant. Ecotech and Kessil are the flagships but aquaticlife has always put out good products. I wouldn’t trust the knock off ebay brands . I myself picked up three halos for my 535 build.

That being said, a local LFS uses husky brand LED pendants from Home Depot and hasnsuccess growing some of the less demanding plants with it hung from a bar over the tank. Here are some pics below.

I love doing paludariums and I highly recommend playing around on dendroboard for more specific advice and answers. Your tank is going to be really cool and look forward to pics.

Lastly, look up epiweb or ecoweb. It’s a cool fabric you can attach to the back wall of your aquarium and you can use it as a planting medium for mosses and epiphyte plants.

View attachment 1305312

Thanks for the recommendation! Can I see how you mounted them? I think I'm going to act on it as the sale is about to end.

 

[mrrobxc]

Thanks for the recommendation! Can I see how you mounted them? I think I'm going to act on it as the sale is about to end.

I haven’t mounted them yet since my tank still needs to be plumbed and set on the stand.

I bought a 86x48 ceiling rack that’ll go over this tank in my garage. I’m going to be hanging the lights from there.

You can always get metal piping from Home Depot and make your own hanging bar. A lot of guy use these pipes to make their own DIY chin up bars for their home gyms. Same concept can be applied to make a rack for your lights.

You can also buy Cadlights bars which is what I used for my T5HO lights. Don’t know if they are still around though.