30 inch light fixtures?

[Bengals]

I'm trying to upgrade the light source that came with my tank hood (20W marienland hood) and read a bunch on these forums about the Finnex ray2 LED systems. I'd like it to insert into the open area of my current hood (having cats necessitates a closed hood). It seems like all the Finnex Rays are either 24 inches (too short) or 36 inches (too long). Anybody know of a good 30inch strip (either LED or CF if it's around $100) that I can use? We're going to have a bunch of low light plants (java fern, anubias, elodea) and we have a 29g tall (18 inches). Our current setup is just too dim.

Thanks for any advice!

 

[Bengals]

Hoping somebody can chime in to help as we'd really like to improve the amount of light! I think it's also hard since we have those two large pieces of driftwood....

I'd also appreciate any advice with setting up the tank. We have 7 cory cats (3 false julli and 5 peppered), 1 dwarf gourami, a blue ram, and 7 neon tetras. I was thinking of removing the petrified wood in the center open up the tank a bit. I also have an amazon sword plant in the back left corner but one of the leaves has started to yellow so I think it needs more light (?). I will move it to the back center tonight.

Our nitrites are always 0 and ammonia will occasionally get up to 0.25 (being very picky on the color) before a 50% pwc. We have an Aqueon 55 and I just bought an AquaClear 70 (the large sponge filter will be placed in the AQ when it's fully set up). Temp is ~78.

So far it's been a huge hit with our cats. We're looking to get one more school finish eventually (maybe dwarf rainbow) but we want to get the plants thriving first.

We have tons of other lava rock (caves...etc) I'm just not sure we should put so many obstacles in the tank. It makes it harder to clean the gravel.

 

[Kimlafeiet]

First of all, I love your driftwood. Very neat pieces. For lower light plants, you could probably go with the Finnex Fugeray, which does come in a 30 inch, and is a little less expensive. You could also try getting a bulb for the current lid you have that supports plant growth (look for a bulb which runs at about 6700k). Most petstores carry a decent selection of these plant bulbs, which should work nicwly for your plant selection.
Also, check out the planted tank forum on this site, there are TONS of lighting threads that are full of useful info.
Cute kitty, btw.
I have a cat tower next to my tank, and my cat spends most of her day there , trying to figure out how to get that darn dalmation molly, lol!

 

[swifty]

I've recently ditched my single strip light for this:

Freshwater Aquarium Lighting » Aqueon® Freshwater T5 Light Fixture | PetSmart

So far the difference in light was night/day; it is extremely bright and lights up the entire tank as opposed to the single strip I had before. I have kept it with the colormax+6700k bulb for now but it's only been a few days so hard to say how much better it is for growing than my previous fixture.

 

[Bengals]

I've recently ditched my single strip light for this:

Freshwater Aquarium Lighting » Aqueon® Freshwater T5 Light Fixture | PetSmart

So far the difference in light was night/day; it is extremely bright and lights up the entire tank as opposed to the single strip I had before. I have kept it with the colormax+6700k bulb for now but it's only been a few days so hard to say how much better it is for growing than my previous fixture.

Thanks for your note. That looks like an very good option. How deep is your tank? Mine is 18 inches and from what I've read it may be too deep for a non HO system? Maybe I'm being paranoid about the depth and light levels. I'm leaning toward the Finnex FugeRay (30inch) as it's the exact size of my tank versus the FugeRay 2 which will be 6 inches short. I was also checking with the review on the PAR data and at a depth of 18 inches with he set on top of the tank the Fugeray would give me 30 PAR vs. 39 on the 24 inch Ray2. Not sure if the extra 9 is helpful but it'll boost me into the medium light range. I hate options but also don't like worrying that it'll be underpowered! I will do some research today to see if the Ray2 will fit along the glass insert where my current lamp housing sits. Decisions....decisions.......

First of all, I love your driftwood. Very neat pieces. For lower light plants, you could probably go with the Finnex Fugeray, which does come in a 30 inch, and is a little less expensive. You could also try getting a bulb for the current lid you have that supports plant growth (look for a bulb which runs at about 6700k). Most petstores carry a decent selection of these plant bulbs, which should work nicwly for your plant selection.
Also, check out the planted tank forum on this site, there are TONS of lighting threads that are full of useful info.
Cute kitty, btw.
I have a cat tower next to my tank, and my cat spends most of her day there , trying to figure out how to get that darn dalmation molly, lol!

Thanks for your comments. We really love the driftwood (I have another 3rd piece but no space). I got a ton of stuff (rocks, wood, slate) off CL and have enough for another 2-3 tanks. We will have lots of fun rearranging the tank. I was looking all of the planted area but couldn't find anything regarding the 30inch tanks sadly. I just wish the ray2 came in 30 inches and I wouldn't have this dilemma.

Edit: Uh oh. Life just got more complicated. I found that Aquavibrant sells a 30inch Ray2 on their website!!! I should also add I'd prefer to not have to deal with adding Co2 so I'm very torn if the RayII is going to complicate our lives by increasing the amount of light.

Also going to get rid of the background and replace it with black felt. We did a terrible job getting the bubbles out and it's been driving me nuts.

 

[Bengals]

I was just looking at the bulb in the stock light and it is only 20 watts giving me only 0.69 watts per gallon in addition to the 18inch height of the tank. One of my swords leaves has turned green.

Definitely in desperate need for a new lamp but I don't want to overdo it and end up needing to supplement CO2.

 

[phin]

I was just looking at the bulb in the stock light and it is only 20 watts giving me only 0.69 watts per gallon in addition to the 18inch height of the tank. One of my swords leaves has turned green.

Definitely in desperate need for a new lamp but I don't want to overdo it and end up needing to supplement CO2.

Watts per gallon rule really only pertains to regular T8 flourescents. T5HO output can't really be adequately measured in WPG as they are more efficient. You get more light per watt with a T5HO vs T8

 

[Bengals]

Hi Phin

Thanks for the note. My current bulb is a T8 non T5HO so it's severely underpowered for the tank. I think I'll probably go with the RayII since it's more upgradeproof and give me future expansion abilities compared with the Fugeray. Dual 7k bulbs are best for FW/Plants, right?

 

[phin]

"best" I'm not too sure which are best. I think with modern day flourescents the nm of the wavelength of the output can vary with similar or same color temps. I might be wrong, But I hear 6700K, 6000K, 6500k, 5000K are all color temps of "plant bulbs"

The bulbs I'm considering for my retrofit project are one each of:

T-5 HO Aquarium Lighting: T-5 HO Freshwater TrueLumen Flora
Aquarium Lighting T-5 HO Florescent Bulbs: AquaticLife T5 HO Pink Roseate 650nm Fluorescent Lamps
Aquarium Lighting T-5 HO Florescent Bulbs: AquaticLife T5 HO Natural White 6,000°K Fluorescent Lamps

The 7000K lamps you are considering will probably be fine, but I don't really know.

 

[Bengals]

I was just taking a look at your DIY thread. Is there a reason you're going with the T5HOs? I was just talking to my LFS and they suggested we go with Innovative Marine LEDs as they claim they're more reliable. I am having trouble finding much out there re: these other LEDS except that they only come in 10k bulbs (and other reef bulbs)

I was also looking at the T5HO's but I don't think I'll be able to fit a double bulb in my 30x4" glass area and I'd like to keep my hood as my cats would love to play with the fish....


How wide is the reflector you're thinking of building? I also have no ability to work with sheet metal...but am very interested.

 

[phin]

I'm going with T5HO for cost purposes. I have the ballast and harness laying around and figure I can come across some endcaps pretty cheaply (or free) by someone upgrading to LED. The reflector width depends on whether I go with 2 or 3 lamps.

 

[Bengals]

Has anybody noticed that their pH drops after adding Seachem Flourish? Not sure why but on Wednesday night we did a little rearranging in the tank and removed 1 large piece of petrified wood and dosed the tank with Flourish and yesterday night the pH was at 6.4-6.6 instead of 7-7.2. I didn't think petrified wood affected the pH and besides those two things, the only other change was the addition of the aquaclear70 filter that's now up and running. Our water has turned cloudy too which I don't like so I've been stuffing sponges into the two filters to try to filter it out. It hasn't worked (maybe the coarse filters won't pick it up) so I'm going to get some poly fill today to try instead.

 

[Bengals]

I just wanted to update as we've done a lot of work this weekend. We replaced the background with black felt (which is a definite requirement) & planted all our new plants we got from ejaramillo01 here on the buy forum. Should the dwarf swords be planted individually? We did it in small bunches since thats how they more-or-less came out.

The tank looks so much better but the light is really way too dim. I've decided on the 30 inch finnex ray II I think and will order it tomorrow. It's the same LED strip as the 24 inch just slightly wider to fill the width and therefore the 24inch PAR values hold for the 30 inch. It'll give us medium light throughout the tank and we'll need to supplement with carbon (hopefully with excel for now). Any thoughts?

I'm still a bit worried about adding the flourish after the rapid change we had in pH. Has that happened to anybody else? Our pH went from ~7 to 6.4 overnight after flourish.

We did have a minor accident with the arrival of the new cherry shrimp. For some reason our ammonia spiked to 2ppm and we lost two cory. Two more still look sick. We did 3x 50% water changes and got it down to 0.25 and just did another one today to get it below 0.25 and have 3 filters running (aquaclear 70, aqueon 55, and the sponge from angels). Thankfully the ram & gourami are still OK.

 

[calfishguy]

I just wanted to update as we've done a lot of work this weekend. We replaced the background with black felt (which is a definite requirement) & planted all our new plants we got from ejaramillo01 here on the buy forum. Should the dwarf swords be planted individually? We did it in small bunches since thats how they more-or-less came out.

The tank looks so much better but the light is really way too dim. I've decided on the 30 inch finnex ray II I think and will order it tomorrow. It's the same LED strip as the 24 inch just slightly wider to fill the width and therefore the 24inch PAR values hold for the 30 inch. It'll give us medium light throughout the tank and we'll need to supplement with carbon (hopefully with excel for now). Any thoughts?

I'm still a bit worried about adding the flourish after the rapid change we had in pH. Has that happened to anybody else? Our pH went from ~7 to 6.4 overnight after flourish.

We did have a minor accident with the arrival of the new cherry shrimp. For some reason our ammonia spiked to 2ppm and we lost two cory. Two more still look sick. We did 3x 50% water changes and got it down to 0.25 and just did another one today to get it below 0.25 and have 3 filters running (aquaclear 70, aqueon 55, and the sponge from angels). Thankfully the ram & gourami are still OK.

How did you do the felt background?

 

[Bengals]

We bought a yard of black felt and just cut out a piece two inches taller than the back of our tank and used double sided tape along the top, sides, and bottom. It's hidden along the glass seam on the sides so you don't see it from the front and the HOBs help pin it to the tank. Looks so much better with a dark background and we had way too many small air bubbles with the vinyl stuff we got at the pet store.

 

[MyanRan]

I can definitely say that choosing the Ray 2 is the way to go! That light will be great, and if you want to use Excel for CO2 it should work great.