Which one would be better lighting?

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FishCrazyBenBOMB

FishCrazyBenBOMB

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I was wondering which one of these would be better lighting.

Either a 20W 6500K Fluorecent Spiral Bulb on the left side of the tank.

-or-

A 15W 6700K Fluorecent Long Bulb over top of the whole tank.

-or-

A completely new plant special plant bulb.




Which do you think would be best for my plants.

I would like to aim for a medium light range.



This is over a 5 gallon tank, DIY co2 injected.
 
A would be ok but why only on the left side of the tank the right side would be dark
B wont be med light
C a bulb isnt going to fix the problem a new fixture might.
 
well ben i have been following your tanks for a while and ive watched your videos. i think you are only using a 20 watt bulb becuase your hood says not to go over ~30 watts. (amiright) well you can over load it a bit and use 2 20 watt bulbs or maybe even 2 15 watt bulbs, it would definitly help spread the light.

hmm i see what you want to do, have a tank to grow alot of plants out and have a nice tank to aquascape in. butttt it seems like it may be dificult to do with a small tank, your lighting options are limited to what can fit over the small 5 gallon space. maybe upgrading to your 10 gallon would give more options such as using 2 lighting fixtures over a glass hood. just muh 2 cents.

but if your lookin for a nice plant growing light and you had bank i would get a 75 watt MH light and hang it over that bad boy!!!!
 
I'm running a 2x16 watt coralife fixture over my 5.5 gallon aquarium and I'd say that it's probably right about medium light. It's a few inches shorter than the length of the aquarium but other than that, it's pretty good.
 
Thanks guys, the reason why it's only on the left side is because the fixture takes in a screw in bulb so it's only on the left side, it says don't go over 15W but I got 20W in it. I can't really put to bulbs in it so that's not an option.

I can't upgrade to my 10 gallon because of the fact that it's going to be used to breed RCS in about a week or so.

I might just have to get a new fixture when I get money but for now it looks like i'm stuck with the 20W flurecent bulb on oneside.


Thanks for the help guys.

Got any suggestions on light fixtures for my 5 gallon that are nice very expensive that would give me about med. light. I saw up there a corallife fixture and I know those are pretty nice, I just bought 2 of em for some of my other tanks.
 
FishCrazyBenBOMB said:
Got any suggestions on light fixtures for my 5 gallon that are nice very expensive that would give me about med. light.
Click to expand...

You want expensive fixture?? Buy a nice hood with a T5 of about 25-30 W. I saw one at my lfs designed for open top tank (so your plants can grow out of the water & flower...). It clamps on the back of the tank & has a nice curved support so the light is maybe 6" above the tank top. Will set you back $100. (Or you can use power compact, but that would be cheaper!)

If you want to go cheap ... get rid of the hood & leave the top open (or cover the top with glass), get a few cheap clamp on desk lamp (or wall/ceiling mount lamps), mount those on the wall/ceiling so you get the lights where you want them. Use daylight screw in CF's, and aim for maybe 30-40W (since the spirals are not as efficient as the linear T5's.)
 
jsoong said:
You want expensive fixture?? Buy a nice hood with a T5 of about 25-30 W. I saw one at my lfs designed for open top tank (so your plants can grow out of the water & flower...). It clamps on the back of the tank & has a nice curved support so the light is maybe 6" above the tank top. Will set you back $100. (Or you can use power compact, but that would be cheaper!)

If you want to go cheap ... get rid of the hood & leave the top open (or cover the top with glass), get a few cheap clamp on desk lamp (or wall/ceiling mount lamps), mount those on the wall/ceiling so you get the lights where you want them. Use daylight screw in CF's, and aim for maybe 30-40W (since the spirals are not as efficient as the linear T5's.)
Click to expand...


I meant not very expensive lol :D But thanks.

I was actually look at this fixture today. Seemed perfect for me.

Coralife Aqualight-Double Linear Strip Power Compact-12" at Big Al's Online
 
The watts your hood is reffering to is energy or heat given off by an incandecent bulb since your spirals are much cooler it safe to go with a slightly higher bulb. Have you thought about a two bulb retrofit for your 5 gallons hood?
 
FishCrazyBenBOMB said:
I was actually look at this fixture today. Seemed perfect for me.

Coralife Aqualight-Double Linear Strip Power Compact-12" at Big Al's Online
Click to expand...

Looks great but gont get the actinic they dont do anything for plants unless yourjust trying to keep the wattage down. the two actinic lights at 18w each your plants will see 9 watts from each bulb so a TOTAL of 18w thats if you go with the actinics if you go with some 10000k bulbs and no actinics then you have 36w over top yer tank. thats what 7.2 WPG and in a 5 gallon thats prolly high light. Someone correct me if i dont make sense i have a serious head cold today.
 
If you get the BigAl's light, you would want to swap out the Actinic. You might want to do one 50:50 & one Daylight. That should give you around 27W of light for the plants for a start. <Should be good medium setup.>

If you find you need more light, you can swap out the other 50:50 for a 100% Daylight to give you 36W total, which would get you into high light.

Another alternative is to look into a retrofit kit if your canopy will accept one. It might be a bit less than getting the BigAls light + new bulbs.
 
jsoong said:
If you get the BigAl's light, you would want to swap out the Actinic. You might want to do one 50:50 & one Daylight. That should give you around 27W of light for the plants for a start. <Should be good medium setup.>

If you find you need more light, you can swap out the other 50:50 for a 100% Daylight to give you 36W total, which would get you into high light.

Another alternative is to look into a retrofit kit if your canopy will accept one. It might be a bit less than getting the BigAls light + new bulbs.
Click to expand...


I think i'm going to get the BigAls one and just replace the bulbs, I don't have a canopy so yeah.

Think you could give me some links to bulbs I should get? Maybe at BigAls so I can order everything from one place.
 
Do you have a Lowe's by you? I just bought two there...black, can bend the arm, has clamp on and I put in Bright Effects Daylight 60W in it...the newer type spiral light bulbs...very bright...on sale 9.98...

Curly
 
Copepod said:
Do you have a Lowe's by you? I just bought two there...black, can bend the arm, has clamp on and I put in Bright Effects Daylight 60W in it...the newer type spiral light bulbs...very bright...on sale 9.98...

Curly
Click to expand...


What did you buy? Think you could get me a picture or link? I do got a lowes by me and that sounds ALOT cheaper then 50-60 bucks for what I was going to buy.
 
I would just Google them...they have a great lighting section...don't know how to do all those computer things...the lamps are like clamp-on desk lights with a flexible arm and would be great over a 5 gal...I got them for my 35 and my refugium....I put the Daylight spiral bulb in...you can go lower if you want less....I have their lights all over the house...they are different and unusual...good luck...sorry about not being too computer savy.

Curly
 
Just found the receipt !!! It is 191955 Clip-on Lamp in Black Col..9.97...it has WISOM GS1-862C written on a sticker on the clip-on handle...hope this helps...they are originally $20.00 which isn't bad either if they aren't on sale now..the lamp part is about 7" long and the bulb holder about 5" in diameter...arm a little over a foot...

Curly
 
Ben, if you were to get those clamp on lights <that was one of my suggestions under the cheap option>, get 3.

The 60W equivalent spiral CF's are actually 13 W, 2 might be a bit low if you are aiming for medium light, considering that they are not as efficient as the PC's and you don't have as good a reflector (most of the ones I see have no reflector at all).

At 24" this might be too long for you .... but a great boxing week sale for a dual T5 fixture at $35 ....
Coralife F/W T-5 Aqualight Double Strip Light-24" at Big Al's Online

The 12" PC at BigAl's may be problematic for you. I looked at it closer & it uses 9" mini PC bulbs. The standard 18 W PC bulbs are 10.5" .... so you might be stuck using ONLY the Coralife 50:50 bulbs .... good for a nano-reef, not too good for a planted tank.
 
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