question on lighting

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mom2reds

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As some of you have read i am trying to redo my tank, I am fixin to change substrate to eco complete then I want to up my lighting. Wright now I have a catalinaquarium lighthouse fixture with 2 65 watt 10000k bulbs, when i had them build it i asked them to leave enough room so that I could add two more bulbs all I have to do is call them and order the ballast to install. My question is should i just go with two more 65 watts or go up. I will not have co2 for a while but that is my ultimate goal. Any advice is helpfull as i am a complete idiot when it comes to electricle stuff.
 
what else would fit into your fixture? 260 watts is nice over 100 gallon.
I did not know if I could put like a couple of 96 watt bulbs in there or not, do I have to keep the two ballast the same? Sorry if I seem like a dummy I really have know Idea about electrical stuff. I have a friend whos husband is a electrician that I am going to try to talk him into installing it for me.

i meant to post this in the planted tank forum sorry
 
you dont have to keep them the same. if they fit it would be fine. it came with extra reflectors or something?

one thing to remember is the bigger the tank the less light needed. while with that much light you prob wont have to have co2 but it would help a lot in terms of keeping plants growing and algae at bay.
 
Oh, I'd be ready to have CO2 with that much light over a larger tank. ;)

As an example: My 180g grows just about anything, and that is running at 1.7 wpg (with a recently added 2.6 wpg noonburst). While I will grant my light is a better one - this is TEK fixtures and T5HO's - it still completely breaks any notion of the wpg "rules", and so will yours.


You can run a different size ballast for the second set, Tess, but please get help wiring it all correctly if you aren't comfortable with it.
 
Oh, I'd be ready to have CO2 with that much light over a larger tank. ;)

As an example: My 180g grows just about anything, and that is running at 1.7 wpg (with a recently added 2.6 wpg noonburst). While I will grant my light is a better one - this is TEK fixtures and T5HO's - it still completely breaks any notion of the wpg "rules", and so will yours.


You can run a different size ballast for the second set, Tess, but please get help wiring it all correctly if you aren't comfortable with it.


Thanks yall for the info, and I will difinately be getting a professional to wire it for me.
 
Just a quick question to avoid starting another thread but is a 40watt, T8, 10000K bulb too much for a planted 55? Im mostly wondering about the temperature range. Ive currently got a 40watt T8 bulb (temp range unknown) that came with my hood in the tank right now and it grows plants fine but its old and a little dull in sections so Im looking into upgrade right now. Also if I upgraded to a T5 or different T8 bulb would the ballast need to be changed out or upgraded? The hood came with the tank from craigslist and is a perfecto 48 inch hood.
 
well there are no 40w t8 bulbs that i know of. t8 is 32w and t12 is 40w. it should say on the bulb. 10000k bulbs should be fine. if you were replacing it i would go to home depot and buy a philips 6500k daylight bulb.
 
yeah small mistake there^^^ it was a T12. Thanks Ill look into that daylight bulb
 
lol i been doing it too long i think it might show. they should have the same bulb in t12 though t8 use less power put tends to put more light into the tank.
 
not really upgrade. many will take t8 or t12 i would look up the fixture and see if this is the case. does it have more then one bulb? might be better just getting some shop lights... or if you really want to get into plants the t5 fixture.
 
Its a single 48 inch bulb. I thought about doing shop lights to save costs. I figure ill move up to a T5 fixture when I switch from diy c02 to an actual setup. I might not end up doing anything at all as currently ive got excellent plant growth on my current setup and no algae problems. But I do know the bulb isnt in the greatest shape so this will be helpful down the road when I replace it if anything.
 
For the OP, I would probably just up the lighting by adding 2 more 65W bulbs. 260W is great for the tank. You can grow quite a bit in that. Now ask me about 520W on a 75G, lol. I ran good CO2, and everything grew so fast, I could not keep up with it. I was trimming the tank every 4-5 days at minimum. Remember, the more light, the faster the growth, and you need to make sure your dosing and CO2 is near perfect, or algae will abound.

As for the type of bulb, for a planted tank, my preference is 6500k-6700k. It is all I run in my planted tanks, and they look great.
 
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Yeah but upping my lighting to almost 260W would probably exceed my co2 production. Wouldnt I then need to upgrade to a pressurized system?
 
Actually, I had 260W on my 75G with no CO2 with very little issues. and if you aren't sure, you could always get 50/50 bulbs as the second set, at least til you are ready for upping the CO2.
 
So im looking into adding on 2 ~26 watt compact flourescents with a temp range of 6500K. Would that be overkill for my setup or a decent addition.
 
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