FW Planted - Eclipse 12 Retrofit

[jasonw0w]

Hey all,

I was planning on boosting my lighting for my planted 12gal. The eclipse system only comes with a 13W bulb to light the tank which isn't really giving my plants the amount of light that they need.

I'm going to tear out the old lighting and stick my own in, I have all the tools and know how necessary but I was looking for suggestions on brands, wattages and color temperatures to go with. I was thinking 48ish watts about 36 of that 6700K and the rest a nice color for viewing.

What do you think?

 

[fort384]

It sounds like you are on the right track. You won't grow much of anything under 13W... but I think you will have a lot of options with an upgrade to 48W total. 6700K is a good color temp to go with. You may go a little higher if you are worried about the color of light for viewing. 8000-10000K will be very decent for viewing, and give you the full benefit for your plants. For a 10G tank, WPG really doesn't apply. I would make all the light you put in the fixture usable for your plants.

Of course if you are growing low demand plants, than your original plan ought to be fine. I am all about lots of light though... but also am running CO2 and ferts.

 

[jasonw0w]

Pinkish hue? 420nm actinic?

I've heard that there is a bulb that casts a pinkish hue that's good for viewing in FW. Is that 420nm actinic? Is that going to contribute at all to plant growth? I've also heard of the "full-spectrum" colormax bulbs that coralife suggests using alongside their 6700K. What's your opinion on those?

I am already dosing ferts with most of the flourish line but I am going to get a co2 system here eventually. Red sea makes a little one called the "turbo co2 bio system." What are you using for co2?

 

[fort384]

420nm Actinic is for use in SW tanks. It is a bluish light. It provides no benefit to your FW plants. It wouldn't hurt anything and can actually look pretty cool, but it is a waste of precious lighting real estate over a planted tank. The pinkish hue will come from the 6000-7000K range bulbs. I like a combo of 6500 (or 6700)K and a 10K. This gives a little of the pinkish/red color mixed in with a very white light. Makes the tank look great.

Careful on overdosing ferts. If you don't have the new light in place and are not running CO2 yet, chances are you will not be N P or K limited (depending on bioload). Extra nutrients in the water column and significantly contribute to an algae outbreak.

If you stick with dosing ferts, I would check out dry ferts. Much much cheaper in the long run. You can get dry ferts and dose direct into the tank, or mix up your own liquid ferts for easy dosing. The flourish stuff can get expensive quickly. Rex Grigg sells them for a decent price, along with listing a wealth of information about planted tanks.

For CO2, I run a standard pressurized 5 gal CO2 tank with a milwaukee MA957 regulator/needle valve/bubble counter/solenoid, and a Milwaukee SMS 122 pH regulator hooked to the solenoid valve. A lot of people on here use it, and it comes highly recommended. It is currently hooked up to my 5 gal tank, and I literally have not touched it in over a year. Granted, on a larger tank the co2 tank would require filling every few months (I got about 4 months out of it when it was running on 29G tank). But with the pH meter hooked up, it really is "set it and forget it".

 

[jasonw0w]

This guy did a retro for his reef: Eclipse 12 g lighting upgrade - 3reef Forums

They also make 96W quads that are 6700K. Do you think that would work?

 

[fort384]

96W is a lot of light for a 10G tank. It would work... it will just really jump start the system. That much light combined with such a small tank means changes can happen pretty quickly. The tank will also require CO2 injection of some sort, and also will require quite a bit of attention be paid to making sure you don't bottom out on N, P, or K. I think you would be better off going with about half that much light, and could still grow just about anything you want to grow with ~48W of light in the proper spectrum and color temp.