Tom's 180 wood scaping

[plantbrain]

Originally Posted by Mortarion

Beautiful tank Tom, I've been following it for a while.

In regards to your ATI lighting, what model is it, and what would you reccomend for a 115 gal 48x24x24 tank? Sorry for asking, but this is my first nice tank, and I really have no idea about lighting. I'm just after something that grows well with CO2 and is easily controlable, which is what you seem to have.

Sunpower with the dimmcomputer.
I'd use an 8x 48" fixture if I were you, then adjust the dimming down to suit.

This way you get nice light spread and bulb color choices.........but do not need high light, but it's there if you want to use it and for however long and wherever in the light cycle.

[Mortarion]

That makes sense to me, thanks!

[radioman]

When I'm done with college and moving around, this is the type of tank I am planning on doing. I love the simpler tanks.

[plantbrain]

I have a few red species in the background that I will try and see how the overall look is. I might add the S belem and others back later.

If you look in the top Left on the filter box, you will see Sturisoma eggs and the male guarding them. Breeding just fine. These are F2 fry now and the parents have never seen another aquarium.

[plantbrain]

I took a pic today and will post that....and the post trim pic tomorrow night.
Fairly big hack today.

[Amandas tank]

Wow! Simply elegant. Nice job.

[plantbrain]

Added Crypt aponogetiifolia and moved the Rotala sunset over to this tank.
These should do nicely in this tank.

Ammannia got too large, too fast.
Erio setaceum gets too crowded as other plants fill in back in the rear of the tank.

It's more a farm section behind the Blyxa and wood right now.

[alipper]

Holy cow, AWESOME tank. Great work.

[sanj]

Tom,

I use ATI powerchromes on my 400g but they are 4x54W x2 raised up pretty high.

They are pre dimmable models.

I was wondering if you know anything about power consumption with dimming on these units?

I get the impression that it is not proportional, but im not sure.

[plantbrain]

Originally Posted by sanj

Tom,

I use ATI powerchromes on my 400g but they are 4x54W x2 raised up pretty high.

They are pre dimmable models.

I was wondering if you know anything about power consumption with dimming on these units?

I get the impression that it is not proportional, but im not sure.

No, it's not proportional, or pout another way, linear.
So say 50% is not 50% less power.

But it is 50% less light PAR, and it's more like say 40%.
I was interested in this and a Kill A Watt meter is easy to measure these kW's at various % intensities.

[sanj]

Hi,

that does still seem quite a good amount of reduction in electricity consumption though.

If I am understanding right, you measured the 40% reduction in power consumption at 50% dimming with the Kill a Watt meter.

My tank is 36" wide and although I get reasonable PAR with the existing units (40-50 at substrate, 30 at the extremes)when all tubes are on. Bearing in mind the lights are raised 3.5ft above the substrate.

I did wonder if two 8x54w units would be better in terms of visual light spread, colour rendition and I could even lower the lights. It is a lot of money though. So it is good to know that if I reduced the intensity the power utilisation would drop substantially.

I dont know if you have seen anything like this on your units but, I bought these ATIs in July 2010 and I am still using the same tubes, the PAR out put has dropped significantly. I used to be able to get 30-40 PAR and 25 at the extremes with just half the tubes on, the other day I measured it and it was around 20. Part of this could be down to more vegetation, but that would only be a small part. I thought fluorescent tubes dropped only around 10% in thier life time, maybe that was not PAR.

[Canadapleco]

What is the foreground plant? Im new to plants and love that carpet!

[plantbrain]

Starougyne repens.