Lighting advice

[Jason the Lost]

Fora 55 gallon low light planted tank...what are some bulb suggestions. I have the 2 hood factory setup right now that came with the tank. I beleive those are 18" bulbs. Somthing more natural in the way of light color, and not as white, unless this is crucial to the plants. Just looking for some suggestions.

 

[gfink]

"Daylight" bulbs will give you natural colors. Look for something marketed as a natural daylight bulb.

 

[Jason the Lost]

What I'm noticing...being that I would need one watt per gallon, 55 watts...is that all the lights are longer than the 18" fixture in those hoods. I would assume that BOTH lights need to be 55 watt...but I'm not seeing anything that will work with those hoods on any online stores...maybe I'm missing it? Am I going to need to get new hoods to set on the tank tops?

 

[Jason the Lost]

The more I look into this the more lost I get, It doesnt seem like any lights that deliver my wattage will work with those standard plastic dual hoods that came with my 55. How do people normally handle the large tanks with the divider bar and two seperate hoods? Do I need to scrap them and get an entirely different tank top setup? They came with the 55 all glass...so its not a big deal to scrap them, I'd rather do it right from the start.

 

[Jason the Lost]

one more thing...would two 55 gallon lights really be 110 watts? or does it only equal 55 watt?

 

[workfortheman]

I'd guess that you are NOT the first person to be fed up with the standard all-glass hood in regards to planted tank lighting. It seems to me there are a couple ways to go:
1) scrap the AG hood, and buy a self-mounting compact flourescent light
2) scrap the AG hood, and build a new hood to house a retro-fitted CF light
3) Cram as many Normal output flourescent strips over the tank as possible.

This last option has proven to work moderately well for me (on a 20gal), but CF lighting is waaaay better than NOF lighting. So, essentially you could go out and buy two more stips like the ones it came with, and find a way to get them over the tank.

Or, I would suggest putting one 55-65 watt compact fluorescent bulb in it's own fixture, something like THIS

HTH

 

[malkore]

Possibly. Your bulbs right now are 15watts each, 30watts total. You'll be hard pressed to get decent growth from even the lowest of low-light plants.

You could retrofit your 2 existing hoods with power compact fluorescents. Check out www.ahsupply.com and their 55watt bright kits. That'll put you at closer to 2wpg though, which starts getting into CO2 territory, and a little more maintenance to keep everything happy.

Another option would be a 48" fixture for NO bulbs which would give 40watts total. You could add that to your current bulbs, and have 70watts total, which would still be low light, no CO2 needed, pretty easy going on the maintenance.

You could also overdrive your current fixtures, by wiring in bigger ballasts and tricking them into pushing more power to the bulbs. The bulbs have to be replaced every 4 months though.

You have a few options, but all of them are going to cost some $$...figure out what fits your budget and goals the best.

 

[gfink]

one more thing...would two 55 gallon lights really be 110 watts? or does it only equal 55 watt?

If you are shooting for 1 WPG, then all of your bulbs should add up to 55 watts. I am a little confused as to what you have now, but lets assume that you have two lighting fixtures with two bulbs in each of them. So each bulb should be 13.75 W (if you could buy such a thing). They are probably 15W bulbs, so you most likely have 15x4 or 60 Watts over your tank right now. Get it?

 

[Jason the Lost]

"Another option would be a 48" fixture for NO bulbs which would give 40watts total. You could add that to your current bulbs, and have 70watts total, which would still be low light, no CO2 needed, pretty easy going on the maintenance."

So the wattage is actually the sum of the amount of bulbs then?

These tank lids are the sort with the glass window and plastic hatch opening and crack away panels in back for filters etc where the plastic hoods sit on the glass window. So I dont think I would be able to "add" another hood to that. I'd probably have to get new tank tops no?

 

[Jason the Lost]

one more thing...would two 55 gallon lights really be 110 watts? or does it only equal 55 watt?

If you are shooting for 1 WPG, then all of your bulbs should add up to 55 watts. I am a little confused as to what you have now, but lets assume that you have two lighting fixtures with two bulbs in each of them. So each bulb should be 13.75 W (if you could buy such a thing). They are probably 15W bulbs, so you most likely have 15x4 or 60 Watts over your tank right now. Get it?

Right now its the generic tank top/hoods that come with the starter kit type tanks at an LFS, I didnt buy the whole kit, but I got a 55 gallon for $120 and it came with the hoods. I realize these are just the cheapy plastic ones so I'm not going to lose sleep over discarding them...but the hoods on the tank lids are the removeable ones that hold one flourescent bulb.

 

[malkore]

Ahh, that kind of hood. Do the bulb fixtures slide out though? If so, pop em out, replace the plastic tops with glass tops, and you can run the lights at 70w like I was talking about.

 

[Skyrmir]

Yes you would have to replace the hoods to put in the larger fixtures. The wattage is the total of the wattage of all the bulbs on the tank. The two 18" bulbs you have now are 15 watts each for a total of 30 watts (not much light).

I think I saw a plant (dual bulb) version of the fixtures for those hoods the other day. The store didn't used to have them, so they may be a new thing since anyone who's tried to plant a tank with those hoods has quickly figured out, they just don't cut it.

Aha found um, http://www.all-glass.com/products/hoods/twintube.shtml
Those are most likely the ones that would fit your hood. Just a note though, even a twin tube setup on both sides of your tank is still only going to have 60 watts of light with those bulbs. If you plan on having lots of plants, then moving up to a hood that will handle the 48" bulbs is your best bet.

 

[malkore]

a 2x40 watt NO fixture would work nice...about 1.5wpg...still no need for CO2 injection, and a little more oomph for the plants.

 

[Jason the Lost]

haha, malkore I was actually just going to ask that. it looks like I can get a 2x40w fixture that seems like it would fit the existing plastic tank tops without having to get new glass tops. my only concern is with those plastic tops theres a window about 3-4" wide where the light fixture sits...I'm wondering if a double light fixture would be a little wider than the window and if theres a little overlap if it would even matter. I imagine the light reflecting in the fixture would beam it down into the window regardless of its size. Obviously the more clear area of glass under the fixture would be better.

 

[TankGirl]

I'd strongly recommend you scrap the plastic frame hood that you have and get a pair of glass hinged tops, and set whatever lights you want on top of them. The glass tops are extremely inexpensive and will make things so much easier and give you a lot of flexibility.

 

[Jason the Lost]

My only concern with the glass top is that I dont have a canopy and it might be throwing alot of extra light out of the tank around the room and not concentrating it inside.

 

[tazcrash69]

I had the same ones originally on my 55 gallon. I traded the the lights for a 48" double NO output light strip. That gave me 80 watts. I used home-brew co2, and really low-light plants. It worked for what it was worth.
If you are serious about plants, it will cost you.
First decide, new fixtures, or retro-fits. If you go new fixtures it will cost you more, ditch the plastic hoods, and get the glass canopies, or even better, go open top (make sure you don't have jumpers, a cat that likes to fish, or a young sibling),
If you go for the retrofits like malkore suggested, you'll save some $$, get some plants, but basically be limited to how powerful.

 

[Jason the Lost]

So would I be better off going with Flora Glo light than regular flourescents?...I want to stay away from co2 for the time being. If i was to get the 48" double NO light strip and change out the standard 40 watts for the flora glos or some other enhanced type bulb for plants would I be better off? Or are those "plant" lights not worth it.

 

[workfortheman]

IME plant lights are not worth it. Although, I usually by aquarium/grow lights made by GE from Walmart (18watt bulbs for $6!)
The 15-20 dollar bulbs IME are not worth the loot.

 

[Jason the Lost]

Im just wondering if those vary in the color of the light. I bought one of those Sun Glo lights for my 20 gal (artificial plants) and like the more natural hue of the light versus the glaring white color of standard florescents.