Lighting suggestions for 29 gal

[gfink]

I'll be moving in the next few months, and when I setup the tank again, I want to switch to eco-complete and stronger lighting. My 10gal has 30WNO over it, and acts like a medium light tank. I'd like to take the 29gal a bit brighter, but not much.

Current plans were for 30" 65W CF fixture and using Excel or DIY CO2. This seems like medium to med.-high light. I'd like to be able to grow almost whatever I want, but I don't need super rapid, fert like crazy growth. I'd be satisifed with slow growth as long as the planst are surviving.

Seems like the next step up is to 130W CF fixtures which seems overkill. Is there anything in between that I am missing?

 

[ringfinger]

I use the 130W fixture with one 10000/6700 bulb and one 10000/actinic. It seems to be tearing through nutrients like crazy though. I bet you could get by just fine with 65W of 10000/6700, and it would be a lot less sensitive than my tank. Sounds like a good plan to me.

 

[Purrbox]

You could go with the 130W fixture and use one 50/50 bulb to knock your effective lighting down to 97.5Watts or just over 3WPG.

 

[gfink]

Won't the coloring be a bit strange with an actinic bulb? I like those natural greens.

I also thought about puting the second 65W on a different timer so it was only on for say 3 or 4 hours (like high noon) during my photoperiod. SO light 1 on for 11 hours, light 2 on for hours 4-7 or something like that.

 

[Purrbox]

Apparently the Actinic really brings out the colors of fish and will help counteract the yellow appearance of 6700K bulbs. Really it's all a matter of personal preference. Some people like the way it looks and others don't.

Your option of keeping the second light on for only a very short period of time would also be viable. You might want to consider overlapping the bulbs instead. For example have one on from 11am to 6pm and the other on from 3pm to 10pm. This way you'd get more even wear on your fixture and bulbs. Either way would work though.

 

[gfink]

Yeah, the overlap is a better idea. Also, I could fine tune my tank lighting by changing the duration of the overlap period.

Say that dwaft hairgrass is barely growing...increase the overlap by 1 hour. Or, say you are having alea problems, decrease by one hour. Have you ever heard of people doing this? It could be an interesting experiment.

 

[workfortheman]

the actinic DOES bring out fish colors. I had 2x55watts over my 29gallon, one actinic and one 6700K. the fish looked awesome, but there was not that strong sense of green. If you wanna see the differnence, check out the photos on the right side of this page, you will be able to tell which ones are with actinic!

The overlapping is very common, and I would also do that if I could (both bulbs controlled by same ballast!). If I could build a 29 from scratch, that would definitely be my choice!