30cm Nano Cube Lighting

[Chris Stokes]

Hello to all,

First post on the forum, although I've been a fan and follower for the past few months!

I'm in the early stages of planning and setting up a 30cm, shrimp only cube and was wondering what would be the best lighting option. The tank with be high tech, and I'll be trying to carpet either eleocharis sp. mini or HC.

I'm really liking the look of the Azoo Flexi mini, however I'm not sure the PAR will be sufficient to get optimal growth. The TMC 500HD tile looks good also, although I've not found too may reviews in relation to nano's.

Any help would be greatly appreciated! I'm not sure if it makes too much of a difference, but I'm going to be running an external canister filter, currently looking into the Eheim Pro Ecco 130.

Cheers!

 

[Julian]

If it's a 30cm cube, you don't have to worry about PAR, unless you are trying to grow plants using candle light. TMC 500 is a good choice, if you want to grow coral. Else I'd go with the 400 for a planted tank. And by god make sure you get a controller and drop it to 20%.

 

[anthonyd]

The tmc 400 will be enough for the size tank you have.
I used it on my 30 litres tank, i had the eleocharis sp mini who did very well even tthough i didnt use co2.
The only problem you might have is the bracket off center the light on a small cube so not ideal if you have demanding plants at the back

 

[Chris Stokes]

I took your advice and went for a TMC 400. Got it for £37 all in, which I was quite happy with!

Now I just need to come up with some sort of way of mounting the thing, without spoiling the minimalism. I'm not a fan of the mountray. Any ideas?

Also, what do you think a second hand TMC controller off eBay is likely to cost?

 

[5678]

Did you find a mounting solution?

 

[Chris Stokes]

Haven't bought it yet, but at the moment I'm going to get a iquatics light hanging kit - http://www.iquaticsonline.co.uk/aqu...mounting-hanging-suspension-system-600mm.html . It's a quite a bit of kit for one tile, but the best thing I could find. I might use one of the bent shafts rather than both, mounted in the centre of the cabinet and hang the tile from that. More minimalistic and it means because it changes the mounting direction of the tile, the power lead will go straight backwards into the bent shaft rather than to the side. Should keep things cleaner it terms of looks with a few clear cable ties.

I'll be doing a journal at the end of the month, including the technical set up, so stay posted.

 

[5678]

I like that. Will look out for your journal post.

I've gone with the TMC mount for now and a mini 500.