My main tank is a 55 gallon. Right now I'm using my stock 48inch lightstip but I changed out the bulb. I'm using a 10,000k dual day/actinic lightning rod. My plants grow ok but I wanna have a crazy aquascape. I'm looking into upgrading the lighting and need opinions/reviews from people who have nice aquascapes. What do you guys use? Who makes the best? What are some good lighting systems out there? I've looked at a couple from Coralife, Orbit, SunPod and Odyssea. What do you guys think?
Opinions/reviews on the best lighting system
- Thread starter J Migidy
- Start date
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dapellegrini
Aquarium Advice FINatic
Avoid Odyssea. Coralife makes good hoods and are widely available. I use a Catalina hood, which I am happy with: http://www.catalinaaquarium.com/index.php?cPath=71
Have you decided how much light you want? High-output T5 lights are the best thing going, but can be spendy and harder to find. Standard CF would also suit your purpose just fine, as would a T8 hood.
When you say "crazy aquascape", just how crazy are you thinking? A 260watt Coralife might get you to crazy town in a hurry, but you would need to get your fert dosing and CO2 in order first. Others do well with much less...
Not to encourage you to get too much light, but I run 324watts of T5 HO over 72 gallons. You have probably seen my long tank thread http://www.aquariumadvice.com/viewtopic.php?t=88786
Have you decided how much light you want? High-output T5 lights are the best thing going, but can be spendy and harder to find. Standard CF would also suit your purpose just fine, as would a T8 hood.
When you say "crazy aquascape", just how crazy are you thinking? A 260watt Coralife might get you to crazy town in a hurry, but you would need to get your fert dosing and CO2 in order first. Others do well with much less...
Not to encourage you to get too much light, but I run 324watts of T5 HO over 72 gallons. You have probably seen my long tank thread http://www.aquariumadvice.com/viewtopic.php?t=88786
Burks
Aquarium Advice FINatic
Why not go with an AH Supply PC kit?
Easy to wire, great customer service, quality parts, and fantastic if you can do a bit of wood working.
Easy to wire, great customer service, quality parts, and fantastic if you can do a bit of wood working.
dapellegrini wrote: Avoid Odyssea. Coralife makes good hoods and are widely available. I use a Catalina hood, which I am happy with: http://www.catalinaaquarium.com/index.php?cPath=71
Do the fans on the Coralife or Catalina hoods sound like jet engines? The quieter the better. As far as how crazy I want to get. I want my greens tall and green....my reds tall and bright red and most important...I want my glosso and grass foreground plants to be thick carpets. My skills are not refined enough to have a Travis Simonson quality tank (I'm trying) but I need the goods to get me there (grin)
Do the fans on the Coralife or Catalina hoods sound like jet engines? The quieter the better. As far as how crazy I want to get. I want my greens tall and green....my reds tall and bright red and most important...I want my glosso and grass foreground plants to be thick carpets. My skills are not refined enough to have a Travis Simonson quality tank (I'm trying) but I need the goods to get me there (grin)
malkore
Aquarium Advice Addict
I run 4x55w lights, and a 96w actinic over my 75gal, no fans. fans aren't 100% necessary.
cheapest route is an ahsupply kit and $10 in poplar lumbar, and some paint to finish the wood canopy.
otherwise, I like coralife fixtures.
cheapest route is an ahsupply kit and $10 in poplar lumbar, and some paint to finish the wood canopy.
otherwise, I like coralife fixtures.
newfound77951
Aquarium Advice Addict
There are about a zillion ways to do this; I have 2x96 PC on my 55, from an AH supply kit, in a slightly retrofitted Sedona canopy, although it would be easy to build a canopy from scratch too. That puts me just under 4 wpg and the only time Ive had trouble with certain plants was more a function of my CO2 rather than the lighting. Shooting for something around 200 total watts will let you do just about anything, although you will need CO2 (most likely pressurized) and also ferts, as others have said.
EDIT: I forgot to say that I have no fans, my canopy is open in the back and on the top and I have no glass over my tank (the lights ar about 6-7" off the water). The tank temp will increase by about a degree over the course of the day because of the lights, so I haven't found a need for a fan. There is a thread in the DIY forum that shows my canopy mods.
EDIT: I forgot to say that I have no fans, my canopy is open in the back and on the top and I have no glass over my tank (the lights ar about 6-7" off the water). The tank temp will increase by about a degree over the course of the day because of the lights, so I haven't found a need for a fan. There is a thread in the DIY forum that shows my canopy mods.
dapellegrini
Aquarium Advice FINatic
The fan on my catalina is NOT silent, but I have gotten used to it. Coralife's are virtually silent. My old Odyssea rattled so bad I had to unplug the fans. malkore is correct that you don't necessarily need fans, depending on what you do.
Lighting was one of my biggest headaches, in terms of finding something I liked. You could accomplish your goals with less than the coralife 260watt, but that would certainly give you all the light you could ever want. You will need to buy CO2 with it too if you don't already have it.
Lighting was one of my biggest headaches, in terms of finding something I liked. You could accomplish your goals with less than the coralife 260watt, but that would certainly give you all the light you could ever want. You will need to buy CO2 with it too if you don't already have it.
Glenc
Aquarium Advice Addict
Ive got quite a few ugly looking things that I've put together myself, you can but all kinds of ballast kits and strip lights from Home Depot cheap. Then just load em up with good bulbs. If you want something that works well and looks good and don't mind spending a bit of money, I to like Coralife stuff. I do have a few of thier pretty fixtures these days, spent the money once I figured out I was going to be in this planted tank thing for the long haul. Still use those ugly DIY fixtures on a few experimental tanks 
I have 2 coralifes and I like them. The 130w one makes a little bit of noise, but you tune it out quickly. It's certainly quieter than the air pump.
What I've discovered after getting 2 fixtures is that your should go with one with higher wattage than you need. Then just use actinic bulbs for what you don't need, or keep half the lights switched off if its the kind with dual switches. That way upgrading is much easier. I wish I'd done it that way so I wouldn't already be thinking about upgrading fixtures. Or in your case, using only half the light your fixture can produce for a little while will give you some time to get used to the ferts and CO2 before getting crazy.
What I've discovered after getting 2 fixtures is that your should go with one with higher wattage than you need. Then just use actinic bulbs for what you don't need, or keep half the lights switched off if its the kind with dual switches. That way upgrading is much easier.
I wish I'd done it that way so I wouldn't already be thinking about upgrading fixtures. Or in your case, using only half the light your fixture can produce for a little while will give you some time to get used to the ferts and CO2 before getting crazy.
