New Member In Need Of Lighting Guidance

[pafish]

Hello All,

I’m new here and looking for some lighting guidance. I’m planning to set up my 50 gallon tank as a planted tank, low and moderate light plants without CO2. Tank dimensions are 36”x18”x18”. Fixture will need to go directly on the glass canopy or on legs raised above the tank edge, maybe 1-3 inches or so. I guess the light would be 16-19” off the substrate roughly

So far, I have looked into the following options:

One or two dual bulb 36” T5NO fixtures such as the coralife listed below or similar: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001F99524/ref=ox_sc_act_title_7?ie=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER

One dual bulb 36” T5HO fixture. Worried that lighting would not be uniform with my 18” depth. I imagine a 4 bulb T5HO fixture would be way too much. But a 4 bulb with independently switched bulbs so I could run 2, 3 or 4 bulbs spread wider apart? Does such a thing exist? Or is a dual bulb T5HO too much light for my needs?

LED Lighting? I was looking at the marineland doublebrights and reading the mixed reviews for planted tanks, but I came across the marineland aquatic plant lighting system. Its expensive, but theoretically should eliminate expenses for replacement bulbs and its reduced energy usage should save money in the long run. I like the night lights and integrated timer. However, would it be too much light for my needs? Specs are here: http://www.marineland.com/sites/marineland/products/Detail.aspx?id=4653#tabs-Ask

YouTube Vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQYhriUWu4Q

I was considering the 36-48”, but if that is too much light would the 24-36” fixture work? Would it spread the light uniformly? Buy once, cry once philosophy I guess.

Additional suggestions welcome.

Thanks!

pafish

[JackFu]

You could do a dual bulb T5HO if you hung the fixture 12" or higher off the tank. Otherwise, you're going to have a serious algae problem.

http://plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=105774

Look at the second image in that thread. Your tank height, after substrate will be around 16".

For a low tech, shallow tank, you'll either have to raise the light or go with T8's.

[pafish]

Ok, based on the first graph, I want PAR of 30-80 at the substrate for medium light, correct?

Would two dual bulb T5NO fixtures work, seems like it might with my 18" tank depth.

And what about the Marineland APLS? Are there decent looking brackets I could use to raise it a bit and spread the light more evenly?

[Hoppy]

For medium light I would try for 40-50 PAR. Any more requires a lot of CO2, so it has to be high light. Less than 30 can exist without CO2, so it must be low light. This is an undefined parameter for lighting - high, medium, low are descriptive, but I don't think there is a consensus on what PAR goes with them.

For an 18 inch front to back depth tank you can either raise the T5HO lights high enough to let the light spread out to cover the whole tank uniformly, or you can spread out the bulbs on top of the tank to do the same thing. Obviously the higher you raise the light the lower the PAR it gives you, so multiple bulb lights are needed for that. But, right at the top of the tank a single bulb T5HO, with a good reflector and real HO power ballast is more light than is easy to manage unless the tank is a 24 inch high or higher tank. Then there are the really cheap "T5HO" lights, which may use under powered ballasts and poor reflectors, so they provide about the right amount of light for an 18 inch high tank - A FishNeedIt 2 bulb light fits that description.

[pafish]

Hoppy,

What do you think about the other two options? Would two dual T5NO fixtures (such as the coralife linked in my first post) work for medium light, more spread out front to back? I could then add an LED accent strip for night lighting.

Or what about the smaller marineland APLS, 24-36"? Still too much light? If so, how many inches would it need to be raised up to work and does anyone make brackets that would work. Hanging from the ceiling is not an option.

Thanks!

[Hoppy]

Coralife T5NO lights would give you around 20 micromols of PAR, if they are widely separated to get good spread of the light. I don't know what a Marineland APLS is?

[pafish]

Originally Posted by Hoppy

Coralife T5NO lights would give you around 20 micromols of PAR

This is for one bulb, correct? So a two bulb fixture would be double, or 40 PAR? And this would be 40 PAR directly under the fixture, but somewhat less to either side, correct? If so, than this is in my goal range for PAR. If I get two T5NO dual bulb fixtures and separate them by 3-5" I should get fairly uniform light coverage, but would that be too much light for my 18" deep tank? Seems to me 2 fixtures would work as the most intense light would be 40 PAR directly under each fixture, but I'm new to this so I appreciate the opinions of the more experienced.

The Marineland APLS is a new LED system - I'm abbreviating Aquatic Plant Lighting System as APLS. http://www.marineland.com/sites/mari...l.aspx?id=4653


Thanks!

pafish

[pafish]

Any thoughts either of these setups for medium light...

1) Two T5NO dual bulb fixtures on top separated by 3-5" to spread the light better over my 18" tank depth, then adding a LED Accent strip such as the marineland for moonlighting. Advantage - daylighting and moonlighting can be on separate timers.

2) One T5NO dual bulb fixture and one marineland doublebright LED fixture which contains the moonlighting, but the moonlighing would need to be switched on manually rather than placed on a timer.

Thanks!

pafish

[Hoppy]

When we first set up a new tank we generally don't mind a lot of things which sooner or later drive us nuts. One of those things is two separate light fixtures across a tank. Every time you do maintenance you have to remove two fixtures. When you want to reach in the tank to pick off a few dieing leaves, you have to remove two fixtures. So, I would always recommend a single light fixture that does what you want, instead of two.

Originally Posted by pafish

This is for one bulb, correct? So a two bulb fixture would be double, or 40 PAR? And this would be 40 PAR directly under the fixture, but somewhat less to either side, correct? If so, than this is in my goal range for PAR. If I get two T5NO dual bulb fixtures and separate them by 3-5" I should get fairly uniform light coverage, but would that be too much light for my 18" deep tank? Seems to me 2 fixtures would work as the most intense light would be 40 PAR directly under each fixture, but I'm new to this so I appreciate the opinions of the more experienced.

It is for two bulbs, not one. Someone was nice enough to make some PAR meter readings with their T5NO light and I now use that data to guess what they do.

The Marineland APLS is a new LED system - I'm abbreviating Aquatic Plant Lighting System as APLS. http://www.marineland.com/sites/mari...l.aspx?id=4653

I forgot about that new LED system. I don't think I have seen any PAR data on that light yet, or maybe I have and it was so high I figured it wasn't going to be of much interest. I do recall that it is a very expensive light.

[pafish]

Ok, I found this AquaticLife Fixture Hanger which might be an option for me to hang a fixture above my tank. http://www.marinedepot.com/AquaticLi...MOFTHK-vi.html

Tank height is 18-19", so say 16" to substrate and tank is 18" deep front to back. Can I do a dual bulb T5HO fixture, say hanging 12" above water surface, and get low to medium light and relatively even lighting? How widely separated in the fixture should the bulbs be for even lighting front to back?

Can anyone give me some options of nice looking dual bulb T5HO fixtures that can be hung? Would I be better off with a 3-4 bulb fixture running 2 bulbs for better separation. This would allow me to add a third bulb if I ever wanted to branch out into the world of CO2. The option of powering the bulbs independently would be a definite plus.

Thanks!

pafish