lighting question

[flushingfish]

Okay, my company ponied up a xmas bonus today so I have a little extra cash to play with. I want to upgrade my lighting on my 20G planted community. I currently have the stock hood with a 15W coralife bulb in it. I really want to go for a medium light set up. Maybe a hood with 2 CF bulbs? The tank dimensions are

17" high
24" wide
12" deep

I would like to bring it up to about 2.5WPG I think that qualifies me for medium light. Any suggestions that won't break the bank? FYI I suck at DYI with anything electrical so I want to buy premade.

If you check my gallery you can see how I have it set up right now.

 

[fish_4_all]

Big Als
Jebo on Ebay

I think if you can swing it, the one from big als would be better but there are members who use the Jebo and have had mixed results, some like it, some don't. The Jebo is dual 50/50 so it would only be 65 watts toward the w/g rating and I think 65 is a better choice for medium light in a 20 gallon, IMHO.

Hope that helps at least a little.

 

[JustOneMore20]

I'd go with a 65w CF fixture....only one bulb, but would give you a wide range of plant choices. It would get you to 3.25wpg which is probably considered medium light for a 20g. Dose some Excel twice a week and you should do ok without CO2, if you have some fast growing stem plants in there.

 

[newfound77951]

I agree, you should be OK with a 65 watt bulb on a 20g with some excel. If it gets to be too much, you have two options, first, replace the bulb with a 50/50 to cut down the useable light, or second, get or make a simple DIY yeast CO2 reactor, which would work great on a small tank like that. I'm a big fan of the Red Sea Turbo CO2 system, which is about $20 online.

If you go with more light now, you're less likely to have to upgrade again once the serious planted tank bug bites and you want to try some more difficult plants!

 

[fish_4_all]

My thoguht on the dual bubls was to give more spectrum over all while only having 65 watts so it might grow some of the more "light spectrum" demanding plants. Might make the tank look a little too blue though.

 

[flyjawn]

i have the same size tank as you and i upgraded my lighting because i have a heavily planted tank.

i have the coralife t5 aqualight....
http://www.bigalsonline.ca/BigAlsCA...0/cl0/coralifefwt5aqualightdoublestriplight24

of course i then had to start CO2 but i just bought the Hagen CO2 system and hopefully everything is under control now.

 

[flushingfish]

Just ordered and am now waiting for my new lights. Coralife CF 65w set up from Dr. Foster's. Now the question is do I have to change my tank cover to an all glass one? Also do I need to use the legs or can I just put this unit down on the glass? I am also putting in DIY CO2 system to help with my plants and to keep the algae down when I install the new lights. Alittle algae would be ok the shrimp gotta eat too. You know?

I was going to go for the T5 lights but didn't want to lay out that much cash. It wasn't that great a bonus after all.

 

[Purrbox]

When you replace the light fixture you'll either want to go topless or with a glass canopy, as your old hood will block too much of the light. If you go topless you'll want to use the legs, however if you use a glass canopy you can use the legs or not as you choose. The benefit of using the legs is that you will minimize the amount of heat from the fixture into the tank, but you'll have some light loss too. The benefit of having a topless tank is that your plants can grow out of the top of the tank which can be quite beautiful and dramatic, but you'll also have more evaporation and need to top of the tank more often.

 

[flushingfish]

Unfortunately I have marble hatchets and amano shrimp in there and they are known for either ascaping or jumping out so I guess I'll be going with glass.