The Planted Tank Forum - View Single Post

cheesehead · 05-08-2008, 02:16 PM

What do you want to do with your tank? Grow low-light plants? High-light? Just have some plants hanging around? Let us know what you want to do and you can get some better advice.

The fixture you chose will be very blue, but somewhat workable. You can replace the actinics for about $50. Some have said that the intense blue encourages algae, and depending upon the lights the plant "greens" may look ugly. Having no reflectors means that not very much of the light will get into the tank. That might be a problem only depending upon how much light you need.

The DIY with overdriven normal fluorescent bulbs will probably work. But T12's are inefficient relative to T5's, you'll put out a lot of heat. And since your original question was "how would the fixture look over a planted 90", unless your building skills are much better than mine, I'd say that the T12 DIY option could look horrible. (I'll also say that replacing the T12 bulbs every couple of months will end up being a pain in the a$$ - here I have to pay a buck a bulb to recycle them.)

The weird thing about bulbs is that it's all in the reflectors. A good two-bulb strip with good reflectors might put more light into your tank than a four-bulb strip with no reflectors. And it's easier to get good reflectors for t5.

I'm not familiar with the catalina mentioned, but it could put twice as much light into the tank for less than twice the $$ - I see that they have a two-light strip for $125. But is it enough light for what you want to do?

If you want DIY... I'm going to be doing a retrofit with the t5 kits from www.reefgeek.com, which I'd recommend over the overdriven T12's. If you use the Icecap 2-bulb very high output, each bulb is overdriven to about 80 W. Since they've got decent reflectors, they'll probably put twice as much light in your tank as the fixture you selected. Even the two-bulb not overdriven ($159) would likely deliver more light.

But - bottom line - 1) how comfortable are you with looking at a DIY canopy and 2) what do you want kind of plants/fish do you want for the tank? And keep the pencil away from the remaining eye.

05-08-2008, 02:16 PM	#8 (permalink)
cheesehead Algae Grower (View User Tanks) PTrader: (0) Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: River Falls, WI Posts: 7	It will be blue. But you could get used to it. What do you want to do with your tank? Grow low-light plants? High-light? Just have some plants hanging around? Let us know what you want to do and you can get some better advice. The fixture you chose will be very blue, but somewhat workable. You can replace the actinics for about $50. Some have said that the intense blue encourages algae, and depending upon the lights the plant "greens" may look ugly. Having no reflectors means that not very much of the light will get into the tank. That might be a problem only depending upon how much light you need. The DIY with overdriven normal fluorescent bulbs will probably work. But T12's are inefficient relative to T5's, you'll put out a lot of heat. And since your original question was "how would the fixture look over a planted 90", unless your building skills are much better than mine, I'd say that the T12 DIY option could look horrible. (I'll also say that replacing the T12 bulbs every couple of months will end up being a pain in the a$$ - here I have to pay a buck a bulb to recycle them.) The weird thing about bulbs is that it's all in the reflectors. A good two-bulb strip with good reflectors might put more light into your tank than a four-bulb strip with no reflectors. And it's easier to get good reflectors for t5. I'm not familiar with the catalina mentioned, but it could put twice as much light into the tank for less than twice the $$ - I see that they have a two-light strip for $125. But is it enough light for what you want to do? If you want DIY... I'm going to be doing a retrofit with the t5 kits from www.reefgeek.com, which I'd recommend over the overdriven T12's. If you use the Icecap 2-bulb very high output, each bulb is overdriven to about 80 W. Since they've got decent reflectors, they'll probably put twice as much light in your tank as the fixture you selected. Even the two-bulb not overdriven ($159) would likely deliver more light. But - bottom line - 1) how comfortable are you with looking at a DIY canopy and 2) what do you want kind of plants/fish do you want for the tank? And keep the pencil away from the remaining eye.