Setting up a new 8' planted tank. Need a little advice, please.

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SharkAquarium

Candiru
MFK Member
Sep 5, 2005
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Hillside, New Jersey
www.sharkaquarium.com
I am just setting up an 8' x 2' x 2' planted tank. I have spent the last week reading all I could find, both here and elsewhere.

I would like to ask the resident guru’s for their opinion on the right lighting. Substrate is organic soil covered with EcoComplete. MIL 957 and 122 CO2 reg and controller, and 2 100watt heat cables. (The tank is centered under a north-facing 3' skylight.)

I have seen a bit on LED lights, but many suggest that T5HO are the way to go. Question is 2 - 4' 2 bulb or 2 - 4' 4 bulb fixtures? How do CoralLife fixtures rate? Are there better out there? What about the new MarineLand LEDs? I want a lush tank, but not one I have to mow twice a week.

I would appreciate any and all comments, and I thank you for your expertise.

george
Shark Aquarium
 
go with 2 x 4' t5ho fixtures. there are better fixtures than coralife. the coralife fixtures only have one reflector, i believe. you want each bulb to have its own reflector (2 bulbs = 2 reflectors, 4 bulbs = 4 reflectors) current usa nova fixtures and aquaticlife are good starts. tek 5s are great. a lot of ppl use catalina aquarium fixtures and fishneedit are good budget fixtures. led lights are much more expensive and the performance isn't quite there yet. if you go with led, diy a fixture with cree led's. the type of layout will dictate what plants you choose and the plants you choose will dictate how often you trim. you will need to match the light intensity and fertilization to the plants and co2. when everything is balanced, you'll have lush plants and no algae. research what layout you want and the plants you'll use. good luck. its a lot harder to keep plants healthy than to keep fish alive.
 
Unless you go with the reef LEDs you might be disappointed in the marine land setup. I really like led but check out some other led
 
I saw a nice planted tank using the Marineland triple bright reef LEDs and the shimmer effect was very cool. I think it was at Allquatics in Hamilton but not 100% sure. I was surprized at the output of this fixture. You could also do a combination T5, LED which would be nice also.
 
If you arent going to use pressurized Co2 I would stay clear of the HO unless you raise it the appropiate height.

LED are really JUST not there yet (store bought) as far as Price and Par. I would go with NO lighting.
 
Two feet deep is on the deep side for a planted tank. You need to make sure that your light penentrates that far down and that you choose plants accordingly. Taller plants should be ok but if you plan on short foreground plants for ground cover they need to have a low light requirement.

T5 (HO fluorecent) lights are not recommended for water depths greater than 20 inches. But if you consider you will have 3-4 inches of substrate then you should be OK. Metal halide is usually used for tanks over 20 inches deep due to the blue light penetrating deeper into the water but these lights produce alot of heat and thus must be ventilated well. MH are also mostly blue spectrum and are generally better for saltwater/coral.

For freshwater plants red spectrum is more utilized along with blue. Unfortunately red has less "penetrating power" and is lost at large water depths. I use a mix of 10000K bulbs and 5500-6500 bulbs to ensure I get blue and red spectrum.

Back to your question about which fixture. I would say if you are going high tech (C02 injection), I would definately go 4 lights. If you are going low tech dual light fixtures maybe adequete. If you have high light but C02 is in limited supply you will not utilize that light and probably have algae problems.

LED is the wave of the future. They are much more efficient energy wise, produce less heat and don't produce "useless" light. Useless as in light that the plant doesn't utilize (green). Unfortuntely this "useless" light is what we as humans consider visible light and because of this the LED's look less bright but from a plants perspective they are great.

Check out this link, it was very informative and gave me great perspective on proper lighting requirements and lighting options.

http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/Aquarium_Lighting.html

I'm fairly new to planted tanks, so I'm not claiming to be an expert but I've been doing alot of research so hopefully I'm giving accurate information.

Cheers!
 
Did a tank very similar to yours, only this was a 72x18x24 tank. Same regulator, same pH controller. I ran 4 48" HO T5, and 4 24" HO T5. If you search back a long ways you will find it. I did have to trim it quite a bit though. Go for slower growers to avoid this, but stay to high light plants. 2 bulbs on each half won't do much, the spread of a T5 isn't that great. The marineland HO T5 fixtures are okay, but not my choice. I'd run some TEK 4 bulb fixtures.
 
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