Lights heating up aquarium?

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AGroucha

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Apr 28, 2014
Messages
14
Hey all,

So i have a couple of smaller tanks, nothing fancy but the fishes are happy and everything is going great.
Im setting up a 128L (~35 gal) tank and yesterday everythig seemed fine and all measurements were stable and temperature was 25.5-26 degrees celcius (around 78 fahrenheit) but today a couple of hous after lights turned on i was 29 celcius (84.2 fahrenheit).
Heater was off, but to make sure i unplugged it. Now 6 hours later its the same thing.
I have 3 x 24 watts light in there, could they really be heating the aquarium up so much?
 
I got them with the aquarium from previous owner as a set. I dont know so much about the different lighting types, hence me asking for help.
I tried to look them up, and as far as i can tell its 2x24 Watt T5 Midday 6000k tube + 1x24 Watt aquared (which i havent been able to find, but found an "aquapink" from seller) most likely T5 tube as well. The last one actually gives off good balance in colors combined with the other, so i will be a little sad to se that one go - but somehow i got to bring to temperature down to at the very least 27 celcius (80,6 fahrenheit).

Flourescents lights would be what? And would LED-lights in tubing be a possibility?
 
Think its a powerchrome tube, that mean anything to you guys?
 
A T5 lighting set up is a more powerful (think brighter) type of fluorescent. They do tend to run hotter than normal tubes I think. I've never owned a t5 set up but it is a step up over standard fluorescent lighting and much better for plants. You have a good set up for a planted tank.
 
Compact fluorescent lights will heat the tank far more than incandescent bulbs will. T5 lighting produces very little heat.
 
Compact fluorescent lights will heat the tank far more than incandescent bulbs will. T5 lighting produces very little heat.
based on a tank I've had that came with a tubular incandescent, it jacked the temp up quite a bit, I swapped it out for a cfl, no more heating up during lights on, cfl's do throw some heat depending on wattage, a 13 watt cfl will run much cooler than any tubular aquarium incandescent will..
 
I'd love some good plant growth yes. Tomorrow i'll try to keep track of temperature and see what happens. Temperature actually dropped slightly after unplugging heater, which should NOT have been on. Maybe something's wrong with the thermostat.
I have option to either turn on 1, 2 or all 3 lights at the same time, so i'm able to turn some off during midday to lower heat emission.
Good thing there's no fish in yet, so i have time to test everything :D
 
based on a tank I've had that came with a tubular incandescent, it jacked the temp up quite a bit, I swapped it out for a cfl, no more heating up during lights on, cfl's do throw some heat depending on wattage, a 13 watt cfl will run much cooler than any tubular aquarium incandescent will..

Heat has always been the issue with CFL, hence why so many people in the saltwater game were so fast to switch to T5s and later LEDs once those lights hit the market. CFLs will grow most softies and grow coralline algae like mad, but they produce a ton of heat. T5s run significantly cooler than CFLs of the same size.
 
How close is your thermometer to the surface? If you're planning on plants than you'd be good up too moderate/medium light plants, you'll need to do some research in that dept. for sure though.
 
My aquarium is a bit closed off in the top, but ill definately look into those fans if im not able to keep temperature down in other ways :)
 
theres also this type
Aquarium Cooling Fans: Zoo Med Aqua Cool Aquarium Cooling Fan AA-13
a lot of us go with the open top made of light defuser (Egg crate) heres 1of many I made
works great letting tank breath
img_2938121_0_4662c95543d5709c64043ee8225c1fb9.jpg


img_2938121_1_228702a9abbdca1ff7727c60d23bcfb2.jpg
 
That actually looks really great and serving a good purpose, what about lighting? Wont they get wet putting them on top of that?
 
That actually looks really great and serving a good purpose, what about lighting? Wont they get wet putting them on top of that?


with lighting you have 2 choices

1) hang lights

2) build a light rack to raise lights 3 inch off water

the rack can be built out of the same material as the top and works good
the pict is a little blurry but you get the idea

img_2938977_0_8238b195f7a0b214ed95ccd9e37130b1.jpg
 
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