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Clueless on lighting!

mattb180

mattb180

Member
Joined
11 Jul 2010
Messages
138
Location
Wellingborough, Northants
Hi all,

Following on from my thread in hardware and having ordered the 36 x 36 x 12 (inches) tank I now need to sort out my lighting but this is an area I am struggling.

Would a suspended T5 unit be suitable?

Can anyone point me in the right direction as I have looked but just aren't sure if I am looking at the right things.

This will be a low - medium, no C02 injected tank with emmersed plants.

Cheers guys!
 
Do you think two tubes would be enough if they are going to be suspended a fair height over the tank?

Given that the water is only 12 inches deep how much do I need in terms of watts per gallon?
 
Could anyone point me towards a suitable LED unit that could be suspended?

Whilst I roughly know what i'm looking at in T5's I really am struggling when it comes to LED's!
 
Or was it a 70w metal halide? I don't think 150w mh would suit a low tech tank unless it was pretty high up!
if your budget will stretch,then adjustable brightness lights would be good but you won't need them to be very bright to start off with.
Perhaps if you grow terrestrial plants out the top and let them establish enough to shade the submersed plants, then you could add more light.
 
foxfish said:
Or was it a 70w metal halide? I don't think 150w mh would suit a low tech tank unless it was pretty high up!
if your budget will stretch,then adjustable brightness lights would be good but you won't need them to be very bright to start off with.
Perhaps if you grow terrestrial plants out the top and let them establish enough to shade the submersed plants, then you could add more light.
Click to expand...

I think he did have MH to begin with but I think he changed over to the kessil LED later on. As you say, I'm sure this was hung fairly high over the tank.

Also for reference, i'm using two TMC mini 400 Led units over my 100 litre low tech tank, and i have them hung 40cm above the tank with the output set to 30%.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
mattb180 said:
Would something like this be suitable if hung up over the tank which is a 12 inch deep 3 ft cube?

http://www.thegardensuperstore.co.u...9kKdoDbGEEEK84wfev0n6VwYR37w_wcB#.U54E3I1dW18
Click to expand...

I ran a ati sunpower 4x54 watt over a 120cm length 30cm shallow. I ran only two of the 4 tubes and hung it 90cm from the substrate and it was fine. Plants grew really well but no algae.
You could find out if the unit you linked to works if you unscrew two of the tubes as I've seen many a tank with those units over and they look nice

Sent from my D6503 using Tapatalk 2
 
Thanks for the replies.

Over the last few days I had been looking at options and the TMC LED gear seems decent. It helps that they had the suspension kit etc that all goes together and I am going to be suspending the lighting from the ceiling.

In relation to the actual LED unit itself would either a single LED 400 or 500 tiles be enough or would I be better off with a grobeam 600? The old watt per gallon rule does not seem to apply with shallow tanks for LED's!
 
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