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Need Help with Lighting on 44g Pentagon!

1239 Views 3 Replies 3 Participants Last post by  hllcpa314, 
H
Hi Everyone:

I am new to this Forum and new to planted aquaria. Over the years I have had several freshwater tanks and even a fish-only salt water tank for a while. I have not had a tank set up for at least six or seven year.

I pulled my 44 gallon pentagon tank out of storage. At this point I have a whole 50lb bag of Turface as a substrate. Also out of storage and set up is an Aquaclear 300 (the thing still works) and a 250w Ebo Jager Heater. I have had the aquarium and Aquaclear set up for about two & one-half months (I am a procastinator). I inserted the heater yesterday. That how it sits today.

Sorry for being so wordy. Now to my question.

With the 50 lbs of substrate, the substrate is about 19 inches from the glass canopy. I really do not want to go with CO2 injection at this time, maybe later (I know I will be somewhat limited in my plant choice). Due to the odd shape of the tank, I am finding it difficult to get a rectangular shaped light fixture that will sit on the glass canopy with-out a 2 inch or more overhang on each side. The only fixture that I can find is a Coralife Aqualight Power Compact Fixture with a 6700K 96W bulb. The fixture measurs 20" x 7" and will fit the aquarium without overhang.

Can I get away with this fixture that will yield almost 2.4 watts per gallon or do I need to find another alternative?

Thank you in advance for your comments & suggestions. I will also need advice on fertilization,etc. I have been reading alot, but alot of the stuff I read seems to be contradictory.

Again, Thank you,

Howard
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H
This is kind of a far out idea, but you could use 3 of the Catalina lights here: http://www.catalinaaquarium.com/product_info.php?cPath=71_74&products_id=1565
Arranged above the tank like this:


That should give you low medium light intensity, possibly a bit higher.
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On a 44g hex/pent tank (if you plan on using CO2) I'd simply put a single 150w halide over it with a good 6500K or 8000K bulb.

Possibly a 175w halide with a mogul base, if I could find it cheap enough, but I prefer the 150w double-ended offerings.


EDIT: I didn't notice you said "prefer not to use CO2"--- a 150 halide would probably give you some algae issues--- a 70w double-ended would probably be a better choice for you and still give pretty good light spread. Hopefully there is a 6500K 70w DE halide bulb out there, probably a ton of them on Ebay.

That, and the shimmer from a good halide is priceless.
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H
Thank you both for your suggestions. I will review further and make a decision. Your advice is greatly enlighting (no pun indended).
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