F.Sam
Aquarium Advice Freak
- Joined
- Jan 21, 2014
- Messages
- 407
Hello,
I currently have an old Juwel Rekord 800. The dimensions are (81 x 36 x 45 cm)/ (36 x 17 x 16 inch). It's a small tank with roughly holds up to 110l or 30g.
The thing is, it still has two 18w T8 bulbs in the hood. I've known for a long time that this is very low lighting. I finally got to the point were I wanted to upgrade them to T5's (2 x 28w). Only.. Juwel doesn't sell the rekord anymore, nor does it give me the ability to upgrade it to T5. Vision, Rio etc all have the possibility to change the lighting fixture, except the old Rekord. I'm literally stuck with T8 bulbs.
So what options does this give me?
- I asked juwel if I can replace the hood with a hood from a Juwel Rio 125, but apparently the hood on the Rio is glued on. So that's a no. But they offered me the new Primolux 80 hood, which holds up to three LED-tubes, each of them is 10.5 watt. Would this be considered a big upgrade? The price for the hood is €180 in Belgium... I find this very expensive for a hood.
- I went to the fish store and they offered me the new Dennerle Trocal:Trocal LED | Dennerle These would replace the bulbs in my fixture with few adjustments. Since my tank currently has 2 x 18w T8 bulbs. They would be replaced by one 24w high-end LED fixture. This also, is expensive. It would bring me up to €130. And wouldn't this be kind of a downgrade? I still think this is very low light..
- I looked online for the Rio 125 (same l x w x h). It has 2 x 28W T5 bulbs. I could buy a whole tank for €100. This sounds to me like a very viable option. Just to check I downloaded this Aquarium Light Calculator A Light Calculation Chart - The Planted Tank Forum I did the test with the specifications of that tank.
2 x 28w T5HO(?) = 56 w
1 aluminium foil reflector.
This gave me an LSI at half depth of 7.26 LSI. This would still only put me in the medium lit bracket. (my current setup is low lit bracket).
So now my question is !also!: why would a new aquarium at these age and standard, only provide medium light? I want good and healthy plant growth and to be at least in the well lit bracket.
What are my options here? What does it require to get to the well lit bracket? (or is this calculator not accurate?). Unfortunately this one doens't include LED-lighting. I know nothing about LED. For all I know it might have the same wattage, but produces tons more lm/W.
Please help me and/or educate me
I currently have an old Juwel Rekord 800. The dimensions are (81 x 36 x 45 cm)/ (36 x 17 x 16 inch). It's a small tank with roughly holds up to 110l or 30g.
The thing is, it still has two 18w T8 bulbs in the hood. I've known for a long time that this is very low lighting. I finally got to the point were I wanted to upgrade them to T5's (2 x 28w). Only.. Juwel doesn't sell the rekord anymore, nor does it give me the ability to upgrade it to T5. Vision, Rio etc all have the possibility to change the lighting fixture, except the old Rekord. I'm literally stuck with T8 bulbs.
So what options does this give me?
- I asked juwel if I can replace the hood with a hood from a Juwel Rio 125, but apparently the hood on the Rio is glued on. So that's a no. But they offered me the new Primolux 80 hood, which holds up to three LED-tubes, each of them is 10.5 watt. Would this be considered a big upgrade? The price for the hood is €180 in Belgium... I find this very expensive for a hood.
- I went to the fish store and they offered me the new Dennerle Trocal:Trocal LED | Dennerle These would replace the bulbs in my fixture with few adjustments. Since my tank currently has 2 x 18w T8 bulbs. They would be replaced by one 24w high-end LED fixture. This also, is expensive. It would bring me up to €130. And wouldn't this be kind of a downgrade? I still think this is very low light..
- I looked online for the Rio 125 (same l x w x h). It has 2 x 28W T5 bulbs. I could buy a whole tank for €100. This sounds to me like a very viable option. Just to check I downloaded this Aquarium Light Calculator A Light Calculation Chart - The Planted Tank Forum I did the test with the specifications of that tank.
2 x 28w T5HO(?) = 56 w
1 aluminium foil reflector.
This gave me an LSI at half depth of 7.26 LSI. This would still only put me in the medium lit bracket. (my current setup is low lit bracket).
So now my question is !also!: why would a new aquarium at these age and standard, only provide medium light? I want good and healthy plant growth and to be at least in the well lit bracket.
What are my options here? What does it require to get to the well lit bracket? (or is this calculator not accurate?). Unfortunately this one doens't include LED-lighting. I know nothing about LED. For all I know it might have the same wattage, but produces tons more lm/W.
Please help me and/or educate me
