lighting advice

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stone1269

Aquarium Advice Freak
Joined
Nov 27, 2011
Messages
336
I was gonna buy a much needed light for my tank and wanted to know wat would best show off the colors of my cichlids
 
How deep is the tank?

Is it planted? If so, what type of plants?

What color substrate?

Background?

And finally, what types of cichlids?

Sorry for the questions, but they have to be answered before any credible advice cann be given.
 
It's a 150g so around 2ft deep no plants no background but would like to get one lol it has maroon gravel with a few big rocks for caves and my fish consist of several diff types
Jack Dempseys
Convicts
1 flowerhorn
1 butterkoff
1 Texas
I have an albino zebra,acei,and johanni that I will b rehoming due to the diff water requirements
 
How long is the tank 4'? You can check the website aquatraders.com. They have cheap t5 ho light fixtures. I have their 72" one and it's been great. Just make sure you have a camera handy while opening the package in case anything is broken.

My only problem with the fixture is the heat. My water evaporates at a disgusting rate (probably 15 gallons in about 5 days but it's a great way to make sure you keep up with weekly water changes)
 
Lol that's fine with me. I just want the colors of my fish to really show and the hardware store lights I have now just aren't cutting it!!
 
Yea that sounds like a good idea lol thanx u may have saved me sum $ again
 
It's all in the bulbs and food they eat for color not the light fixture. The cheap fixtures will do just buy good lights. I see the most change with food I feed and when fish get set size age more than anything. Well I guess I already have some alright lights also
 
Yes I've been hearing a lot of good things about hikari so I believe that's the way I will go I'm jus not sure exactly wat to get there r so many to choose from but the hikari excel says it has color enhancers
 
They even have Sturgeon food :) Just a side not I recently got some Tetra Chiclid pellets floating food at the local walmart, I have seen some good color improvements with it in a few different fish. I have gone through a couple containers of it and now I am going to go back to the other food to see if the food made all the difference. So far though I would keep using that stuff, fish seem to love it and colors are great. Just a thought. Try some. It also says Natural color enhancer but I know some say its coloring in the food, I wont claim to be an expert here because some people on here get on you fast for nothing but so far to me seems to be great food and helps with color.
 
Thanx for the info and I feel u on that one lol but I've come to realise that the majority of ppl on here genuinely care about the health and well being of ur fish and I have to respect that thanx again
 
I'm not a fan of tetra as to hikari when you start comparing the nutritional breakdown. To me it's a bunch of filler.

You will have a hard time finding quality bulbs for aquarium purposes for the average hardware store fixture since they are usually different sizes. My first tank when I started getting serious about fish I did a home depot retrofit of a twin bulb t5. After time even when getting the clearer white bulbs from them it just made the tank have a yellowish tint.
 
My tank hasthe yellow tint now lol I have 2 seperate fixtures 1 takes a 17in and the other a 23in bulb
 
I was kinda wantin just one long fixture. Do they have fixtures an bulbs that are around 6ft I could use a 60in or even a 72in really
 
You should have no problem finding 50/50 bulbs for them. They're T8 bulbs, right? Should be 18" and 24", which are pretty common sizes. Most any chain store will have them. You might get one and make sure you like it before getting both... you should be able to take it back if it doesn't give you the look you're after.

There are 6' fixtures you can buy. You will probably make out a lot cheaper with two 3' fixtures. I lit my 125 with two 2' fixtures, but they were T5HO's. My 6' light that came with it held two 3' bulbs... and in store costs considerably more than twice what two 3' fixtures would cost.
 
I hate to sound dumb but I don't even no wat T8 means lol honestly I couldn't tell u wat a 50/50 bulb is either :(
 
Haha, no worries. It's confusing until you figure it out. The 'T' number of a fluorescent bulb is the diameter of the bulb in 1/8th's of an inch. So, a T8 is 1" in diameter. A T5 is 5/8" and a T12 is 1.25" in diameter. T8's are the most common in the hoods that come with tanks. T12's are getting harder to find, I even overheard a Lowes employee saying they were going to stop selling them some time this year (no idea if that's true or not). T5 is the new thing, as they penetrate deeper than T8. That's not really an issue on your part.

A 50/50 bulb is 50% daylight, 50% actinic. The actinic is blue, which gives the bulb a nice mix of white and blue, which really brings out the colors in fish. They're really made for SW tanks, but work great in FW for that purpose alone.
 
I've been keeping fish since I was old enough to wrk an save to buy my 1st aquarium but never took a 2nd thought to lighting or water requirements I always put the chlorine killer in and I was ready for fish! I've always had pretty good luck with fish cause I like to keep them fed and their tank clean but that's it I really wish I woulda had a smart phone with SA app when I was a kid lol
 
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