Juwel lighting question

[Tom Michael]

I'm in the process of upgrading my existing lido 120 into a high tech set up and lighting is last on the list...

Any views on what the best bulb combination would be (aesthetically..I realise this wont make much difference to plant growth). I currently have two day tubes and am not keen on the blue ish colour, would replacing one with a nature or colour bulb help? Any pics of your juwel tanks with mixed bulbs would be most helpful.

Also when should I replace these bulbs? Do they gradually lose sig intensity over time , have had them for 12 months.

And finally is there a cheaper alternative to the juwel own brand?


Many thanks in advance...

 

[Vinkenoog1977]

Hey Tom. Lighting colour is a matter of personal preference; I actually prefer the daylight tubes to any other, but as said, that's purely personal.
You should replace them when they break, the degradation of modern tubes is very minimal, so there's no set period for it. Change them when you see a difference, either visually, or from the resulting plant growth, but they should last you at least 2 to 3 years without problems.
And there are definitely cheaper alternatives; you can buy whatever tubes you want, as long as they have the colour you want, and produce a comparable amount of lumen, you're good to go!

 

[ian_m]

And there are definitely cheaper alternatives; you can buy whatever tubes you want, as long as they have the colour you want, and produce a comparable amount of lumen, you're good to go!

Nope. Juwel tubes are Juwel length. They are this length to fully cover the width of the tank, and give more length choices than industry standard lengths.

There was a blog somewhere why Juwel made their own lengths. Generally a tank volume is approximately x * x/2 * x/2 (x = tube length) thus with standard length tubes you get volumes of 42l, 150l, 380l and 680l. Basically not much in useful volume range of 100-300l.

But with Juwel length tubes you get handy volumes of 16l, 50l, 100l, 180l, 280l, 430l, so you can see where Vision 180, 260 & 450 come from.

Any way lengths here.
http://www.arcadia-aquatic.com/original-tropical-lamps/

Also made by JBL.
http://www.jbl.de/en/aquatics-fresh.../jbl-solar-tropic-ultra-special-lengths#sizes

My mate has retro fitted Juwel length tubes over his tank so light now covers full width of tank, unlike the original (15 years ago) tubes.

 

[Vinkenoog1977]

Really? Well, Philips make 590 mm. tubes, as does a DIY store under own name, so.
https://www.google.nl/?gfe_rd=cr&ei=HdJtVPHKEMaxOsKqgcgN&gws_rd=ssl#q=tl 590 mm

Edit: 438, 742, 895 mm., all available from other manufaturers than Juwel.