Lighting beginner LF help

[Snailradel]

Hi everyone, I have just finished (for now!) setting up my new 75 gallon freshwater community tank. I'm pretty excited about it and love the way it's turned out.

My only gripe is with the lighting. I have the 48" hood lamp that came with it and it has one of those long halogen bulbs in it (fluorescent? Halogen? I know nothing about lights!)

Anyway, it's a very bright, white light and It washes everything in the tank out and I'm not thrilled with it.

So, a few questions for this knowledgable community:

1. Is there a better bulb I can buy that will look nicer than the one in it? (That would fit in my hood)

2. Can someone explain LED lighting a bit? Does it give a better look? Is there a relatively inexpensive led upgrade that I could move to?

I've spent a lot these past few weeks on this new aquarium...for now I would like to try to keep the costs down. Which is why obviously replaceing the bulb would be my first solution. But I'm open to hearing about some better methods.

I do have some live plants in there, so please
consider that when making some suggestions

. Thank you kindly everyone

 

[Convict2161]

It's a fluorescent bulb, you can look online to fond a replacement bulb. Just look on the bulb if its a T8 or T12 I doubt it's a T5.

Anyway ten go online and find a replacement bulb. Or maybe look into LED's. I have a 75 gallon and run the marineland double bright LED fixture. There's pictures in my album. I'm very happy with it.

LED's or T5 HO (high output) are popular. What fish are you keeping?

You can get a good dual T5 HO fixture for a good price and add a blue or actinic bulb in with your daylight bulb to bring some colors out.

Lighting in freshwater is preference IMO as most don't even require lighting. Unless planted of course. My lights are only on from 3:30pm-10m from the time I get home from work until I bed down. Weekends if I have people over I'll manually turn them on but that's a little off topic.

Here's some links so get ya started.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/s/ref=p...d=1898348592076325287&hvdev=m&hvexid=&hvqmt=b

http://www.aquaticlife.com/products/277

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=23753

http://www.aquabid.com/cgi-bin/auction/auction.cgi?lighting


http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=23738

My tank under a 48" marineland double bright LED fixture.

http://youtu.be/Ux647I16p0Y


Oh to answer your other question. LED's produce less heat, more energy efficient and give a nice shimmer effect. Metal halides will give a shimmer effect also but IMO you don't need to go that route with a freshwater tank.


Hope this helps

 

[Snailradel]

That helps a lot! Thank you for the info. I'll take a look at a few of those links and see what I can hunt down.

Out of curiosity, is there a big (or any) difference between the basic bulb it came with and those ones at the LFS that say they're for planted tanks? Will it basically be the same thing but due to some clever marketers, I think I need it? Lol

Thanks

 

[Convict2161]

That helps a lot! Thank you for the info. I'll take a look at a few of those links and see what I can hunt down.

Out of curiosity, is there a big (or any) difference between the basic bulb it came with and those ones at the LFS that say they're for planted tanks? Will it basically be the same thing but due to some clever marketers, I think I need it? Lol

Thanks

Are yo planting the tank? A bulb for a planted tank would generally be lower like 6k where daylight bulbs could be 10k +

For example when I had T5's on my 75 African tank I had 2 10k and then a purple and blue bulb. Now I run LED's. you wouldn't want all that light with a planted tank.

 

[BBradbury]

Your 75 G Lighting

Hello Snail...

Your lighting depends on the plants you keep. I have a similar tank, 48 inches long and use standard florescent bulbs. They're very inexpensive and the GE aquarium plant bulbs work fine.

For my wider tanks, I use 40 watt, 6500K, T12s. You're limited on the plants you can keep, like Anubias, Cryptocoryne and most of the mosses will do well. I have Singapore. Java fern, Pennywort and Brazilian waterweed are also good. There are more than enough plants to fill a 75 G, that will do well in more subdued lighting. My Corydoras thrive in the large, lower light tanks.

Anyway, if you have deeper pockets, then Solarmax has very good lighting. I have it over a couple of my 55 Gs. Same length tank as your 75. If you get this light, I'd recommend switching out the bulbs that come with the strip with 48 inch, 28 watt, T5s. The LED lights on this strip are a nice addition if you like the color they project into the tank. They're mostly for looks IMO.

Just a couple of thoughts.

B

 

[Oohitsae]

To get that washed out look to go away, you'll want something in the right color spectrum to do so.

Planted tank bulbs are supposed to be from 5000-8000 kelvin and I think that's what looks best. 7000 is my favorite to be more exact but not very common (unless you want a Finnex LED for fresh water) 6500 gets you close and still looks good. All the kelvin ratings should be somewhere on the tubes package.
Plus side of getting something in this spectrum is if you want to get some low light plants later down the road, you'll be able to.

If you want to go with another fixture, a pretty inexpensive one is made by odyssea and are available on aquatraders.com they have dual and 4 bulb fixtures which have a sleek design and are in the right spectrum for plants

If you do go with LEd's, they will not fit in your current hood so be aware of that.
My favorite brand has got to be Finnex the tank and everything/one in it looks amazing with that lighting and they ray2's are more than enough to grow moderate light plants if wanted. It's inexpensive for an LED. Marineland's are nice as well, but I've never looked into if anyone tries to grow plants with them, at most I'd assume it'd only grow the lowest of the low.

Last option I'll bring up is that if you want to change out your hood, you could do a glass top and get some shop lights with compact fluorescents. That'll be by far your cheapest option besides replacing your current bulb.

And yes, I know you never said anything specifically about growing plants, but if you are going to upgrade, you might as well upgrade to one that's capable of it just in case you'd like to try some later down the road.

 

[Convict2161]

Are we sure it's a planted tank?

 

[Snailradel]

*edit* Double post (not sure why it posted it twice!)

 

[Snailradel]

The bulb currently in my hood is a Marineland F40t10 natural daylight.

Upon further reading. . .my hood is a T8/T10 so it looks like T5's are out of the question for the time being.

Maybe in a while I'll look at upgrading to a T5 dual hood. . .but for now, I just don't think it's in the budget. (Unless a forum member is looking to unload a 48" one cheap!)

So, I'm back to looking at the T8's. . .

If I could impose upon you folks for your opinions on the following (or something better?. . .I'm not a big fan of shopping at Petsmart/Petland but the LFS's don't post their products on their websites. So this is all I have for now):

Aqueon Floramax T8

Zoo Med Ocean sun 10,000K

Zoo Med Ultra Sun Trichromatic

Zoo Med Flora Sun Maximum Plant Growth

They all look the same to me! Lighting Is confusing lol.

Thanks again for the help all.