55 watt cfl with spotlight question
- Thread starter Atxpunx
- Start date
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Do 55 watts cfl on a 20 gallon transfer to lower than 2.75 watts per gallon? I know watts per gallon doesn't really apply now a days but would low light plants thrive? I'd rather have thriving low light plants than barely existing medium and medium high plants
aqua_chem
Aquarium Advice Addict
Is this still the spotlight?
aqua_chem
Aquarium Advice Addict
Spotlights tend to have very narrow projections. I would be afraid of having high light in the middle and low light everywhere else.
aqua_chem
Aquarium Advice Addict
You're not considering the additional fert and co2 requirements of high light. Enough ferts for high plants in the middle might open up the chance of algae on other plants.
BillD
Aquarium Advice Addict
If you are talking about the large reflectors that hang or are clipped on, they work very well with CFLs.
jetajockey
come get me tang police!
I'd treat it like a regular CFL setup, it's a shop light type reflector but it's not exactly a spotlight type bulb. You'd probably be better off running 2 of those, I have 2 on my 29 and it's in the low to low-medium range.
jetajockey
come get me tang police!
It's a lot less, I think they are around 23 watt or so. Is the 55 watt # the actual wattage or just what it's 'equivalent' wattage is?
It looks pretty good, DIY lighting is always very trial and error so since you already have it set up and it looks good I'd let it run like that and see how it goes, then adjust if necessary.
It looks pretty good, DIY lighting is always very trial and error so since you already have it set up and it looks good I'd let it run like that and see how it goes, then adjust if necessary.
jetajockey
come get me tang police!
nice, sounds like it'd work pretty good. In a spotlight type setup I'd be more apt to use multiple bulbs spread across the tank rather than one large one, just for more even distribution, but either way would work I'm sure. Aren't those bigger bulbs expensive?
I am running 52 watts of CFL on my 20 gal high, via 4 x 13 watt bulbs. My tank has a hood. I pulled the old florescent bulb, ballast and all and DIY wired up some sockets for the CFL's. Mine are spread out, so I can't speak much as to how your reflector will work for spreading the light, but I can speak of algae. I do get some. I have some BBA (Black beard/bush algae) on my rocks and drift wood and I scrubbed some green algae off the glass today during my water change.
Some of my algae problem is actually because of a filter that I was using (I switched it out today). It sat a little too high in the tank and didn't run all that well. It would splash water on the plastic light cover that separates my lights from my tank. Algae began growing on the plastic and then dripping down into my tank. I can let you know in the next couple weeks if my algae builds back up, but I imagine you will know yourself if its going to in your tank or not.
As for plants....Everything I put in has grown well. I am running a DIY CO2 generator (I like to DIY). I also use some liquid fertz each week with my water change, but I never dose as much as they say to.
Here is a short clip of my tank that I posted in another thread, just to give you an idea of how the plants are doing with the light. This was taken on the 12th of this month. I started adding the fertz the same day this was taken.
100_2504.MOV - YouTube
And here is another one that I shot today to show the difference.
100_2518.MOV - YouTube
Some of my algae problem is actually because of a filter that I was using (I switched it out today). It sat a little too high in the tank and didn't run all that well. It would splash water on the plastic light cover that separates my lights from my tank. Algae began growing on the plastic and then dripping down into my tank. I can let you know in the next couple weeks if my algae builds back up, but I imagine you will know yourself if its going to in your tank or not.
As for plants....Everything I put in has grown well. I am running a DIY CO2 generator (I like to DIY). I also use some liquid fertz each week with my water change, but I never dose as much as they say to.
Here is a short clip of my tank that I posted in another thread, just to give you an idea of how the plants are doing with the light. This was taken on the 12th of this month. I started adding the fertz the same day this was taken.
100_2504.MOV - YouTube
And here is another one that I shot today to show the difference.
100_2518.MOV - YouTube
jetajockey said:
Yeah the 55 watt bulb costs $12 easy so I'm sure the bigger bulb the more money. I might keep as is because I want java fern on the sides of the tank an I put two swords in the middle of the tank because the light is more centered but that I feel would work out great giving my amazon swords more light penetration. Any thoughts on the sword placement?
@Johny. That's a good looking tank! I can't wait to get some wisteria so I can get a look like that. Also shows what you can do with cfl not needing t5s all the time. I'm a little hesitant to wire my own sockets seeing as I don't know if I'm wiring right
Thank you very much. I have been in the hobby since mid May, and its been a lot of fun. I especially like seeing my plants grow. The wisteria grows like a weed! Most of the plant mass in my tank is wisteria. It puts out runners all over the place and pops up places I didn't plant it.
I agree with the CFL/T5 comment too. I have a hard time believing that everything we need for the hobby is some specialized piece of equipment that I have to go pay an arm and a leg for.
As far as wiring your own sockets. Its literally just a positive terminal and a neutral terminal. I just did the lights in a tank my wife is starting, and I bought sockets from Home Depot with the wires already on them. I just had to group all the positive wires together with the one from my power cord and and the neutral ones together with the ones from my power cord. The hood had a switch already (I tore it apart just like I did with mine). It was about an hour project to pull apart and put back together. I'll see if I can post a picture of how my wife's set up looks (its a lot prettier than mine).
I agree with the CFL/T5 comment too. I have a hard time believing that everything we need for the hobby is some specialized piece of equipment that I have to go pay an arm and a leg for.
As far as wiring your own sockets. Its literally just a positive terminal and a neutral terminal. I just did the lights in a tank my wife is starting, and I bought sockets from Home Depot with the wires already on them. I just had to group all the positive wires together with the one from my power cord and and the neutral ones together with the ones from my power cord. The hood had a switch already (I tore it apart just like I did with mine). It was about an hour project to pull apart and put back together. I'll see if I can post a picture of how my wife's set up looks (its a lot prettier than mine).
