Side Lighting

[fish_4_all]

Ok, I know this one will bring a lot of different opinions but I hope no arguements.

I see many plants that are very nice on the top and weak on the bottom. A lot of talk about trimming the top because the bottom is so weak and dying off. Floating plants are taboo because they block too much light to support medium high to high light plants.

Why then can we not and don't we side light and/or back light our tanks?
And it wouldn't be that difficult either. A reflector on the sides or back of the tank. Compact fluorescents or NO fluorescents set up to light the tank from the back about 2/3rds down the back? Wouldn't this also account for lower lighting on top?

Let's take a 100 gallon tank for ease of calculations
350 watts would be considered high enough to grow most plants. That conventionally means a 350 watt fixture on to of the tank. Lots of light toward the top and less light toward the bottom especially if you have a lot of plants.
Now let's take the same tank and do this:
200 watt fixture above the tank and a 200 watt fixture 2/3rds down the back of the tank. This light would be pointed almost straight in but angled just enough that the focus of the light is down toward the front of the tank. Would this be high light, medium light or would this simply leave us with a tank that blinds us from the light angle from the back and won't grow most plants? If that is the case, why not put 1, 100 watt fixture on each end of the tank pointed straight at each other?

I know this is all hypothetical but if someone has tried it let me know. I think I will try it with one of my 10 gallon tanks just to see if it will work with screw in fluorecents. 2, 15 watts on top and 1, 15 watt on each side. Or maybe 1, 15 watt NO on top with a 15 watt pointed in from the back.

The real question is how many think it might actually work?!?!

 

[noncentric]

Great question. I've wondered about this as well, since my Eclipse hoods make it a bit difficult to add additional lights to the top.

One thing that occurs to me, is that side lighting a tank might be a problem with blinding fish. I mean, most fish swim horizontally and would be swimming straight into the light - which isn't a problem when the lighting comes from above.

Hhmmm. I look forward to seeing what the 'experts' have to say about this.

 

[Lonewolfblue]

I think it may be an algae on the glass issue. If you place lighting on the sides, kind of like having it in an open window with daylight, algae will take hold and be very hard to maintain.

 

[czcz]

It works Only for whatever its worth, of course, but here's what I think about it.

1) Doing it in an aesthetic way is important, because planted tanks are beautiful and a bunch of stuff around the tank can take away from that. (I have this problem.) Tanks lit by lights on legs look great, but a bunch of lights and shades and lamps and stuff around a tank is distracting, for example.

I tried to get around this by setting up another tank beside the main tank. If you want you can get cute and use the side lighting for sunrise and sunset. Could make the side tank a sump, but hiding the piping may be hard.

(The nano isn't that bright in real life... I can see into it )

2) Algae as LWB mentioned.

3) Plant tips near the side lights will point towards the side, and that looks weird and unnatural when viewing the tank from the front.

4) In one 10gal I have a foreground plant that is capable of showing red, but adding a 13w CF right by the plant doesn't make it turn red. In another tank there's definitely a difference, but its not a huge difference. (Both tanks are already high light.) JMO, but the more things I try the more I'm convinced nutrients and trimming makes plants look good. After a certain point light just isn't that important.

5) When jerry rigging alternative lighting (screw-in CF, for example) there's so much light scatter we may as well use it.

But, in the end, 2*13w CF with an AHSupply reflector was much brighter for me than 2*23w screw-in CF with a white hood (I have comparison pics if you want). Lets say I need 4*23w screw-in CF with poor reflectors to be as bright as the AH Supply kit (I think this is a fair estimate). Factor in the cost of two additional lighting fixtures and the 4:1 operating cost, and the AH supply kit just keeps looking better and better.

--

Very interested to read what you find from your experiment. HTH

 

[newfound77951]

The fish won't like the light from the side. Most fish are countershaded, that is, they are darker on their backs and lighter underneath. This is a camouflage mechanism, as it makes the fish harder for a predator to see; if you look down on the fish, their dark back blends in with the bottom, and if you look up frim under the fish, the silvery belly blends in with the light coming from the surface. Fish "know" this and consequently will try and swim so that their backs are facing the light. If the tank was lit from the side you'll see a lot of your fish swimming sideways!

 

[tbonem91]

with a light coming in from the back, you couldnt really look into the tank from the front - you'd blind yourself but it was a neat thought

 

[fish_4_all]

A lot of good points and a lot of good ideas. But I do have a couple more questions. I didn't pont out the tank is supposed to be heavily planted. Heavily as in there is little chance of seeing the back of the tank. I also realize that the plants will try to grow sideways so a higher light on top, say 250 watts on top and only 50 watt bulbs on the sides should help a little with this. As for the fish, the high light on top should help them distinguish the difference and BTW, lighting on the lakes around here is rarely ever directly overhead of the lakes and I have yet to see a trout swimming sideways. .

I like your attempts CZ and the pictures. I also really like the idea of a tank beside it. I actually thought of using an aluminum can and cut it in half as a reflector, after polishing it and then clear coating it with a high reflective clear coat. AHSupply's reflector would be awesome and definatley give a lot more light. Also, modifying the can in order to direct the light at a downward angle to the stems of the plants and prevent it from actually penetrating past the left or right 1/4 of the tank is a thought.

As for carpet plants, how much do you think they would grow toward the front of the tank with a really low light in front, I know, probably look like a sideways bottom but I had to ask. 8O

As for algae, never thought of it but I have problems with it without the side lighting and my BN are good eaters. 8)

Sooner or later I will try it just because it sounds like a lot fun and if it works, then all the better.

 

[malkore]

some people get good bottom growth from adding actinic lighting. TravisSimonson does that on his 125g planted tank...and its one of the best I've seen. I doubt Amano could do much better if he tried to make a planted cichlid tank

Its worth experimenting, but the thicker walls of the side of the tank, as compared to the thin glass tops, will reflect and refract the light to a greater degree.

I need to get my old SW stuff mounted into my 75gal canopy, and then i'll start running some actinic lighting. I shall report my findings.

 

[czcz]

I have not observed the fish swimming sideways thing but only the "sunrise" tank has fish. It makes sense and I'm sure there's studies proving it. I wonder if, as fish_4_all suggested, it is an intesity of the light thing. When both the top and a side light are on, maybe such artificial lighting is similar to a low sun. Thoughts?

fish_4_all.

I actually thought of using an aluminum can and cut it in half as a reflector, after polishing it and then clear coating it with a high reflective clear coat.

Man I dunno. Are you going to paint the outside of the can black or something? It would be hard to get a nice even cut on an aluminum can I think.

Here's Tony Gomez's article on the perfect reflector. You may have read it already but, if not: http://www.aquariumgarden.com/info.php?doc_base=articles/lights/reflector.php

As for carpet plants, how much do you think they would grow toward the front of the tank with a really low light in front, I know, probably look like a sideways bottom but I had to ask.

Its the same as stem plants I think. The most interesting thing about this is watching how plants grow. For example, notice the shape of the additional light in the first attached tank above. That is the shape of the L. brevipes and stargrass midground, both plants that usually grow real tall. I trimmed these but ditching the tops and leaving the bottoms. (You can get the bottom of any stem plant to look good with top/standard lighting.)



So, I think side or front lighting will effect your carpet and midground, but you can work around this if you don't mind the plants being a little weird. I think the degree of weirdness depends on the intensity of usable light.