• You are viewing the forum as a Guest, please login (you can use your Facebook, Twitter, Google or Microsoft account to login) or register using this link: Log in or Sign Up

LED Lighting for 5 foot Aquarium

Mike Charlie

Member
Joined
16 Jul 2017
Messages
42
Location
Ashton-under-lyne
Hi Everyone, first time posting here but been doing aquariums for some time now and have a 108 Gallon tank that I am currently setting up, got some different tetra's, a three spot gourami and a silver dollar (very small at moment). Already decided I want to go with a tetra heaven so I am designing a wet dry filter which can handle more than enough. Now I am looking into what lights I should use, size of tank is 60"Lx18"Dx23"H. I still haven't decided what to keep in the way of plants, but thinking dwarf baby tears for some carpeting.

Anybody got a clue of what LED's lighting I should get?
 
You may want to read this $fish profile - these fish are dedicated plant eaters ;)

Assuming by dwarf baby tears you mean Hemianthus callitrichoides 'Cuba' & given 23" tank height, expect to pay a decent amount for (high intensity) lighting in order to have reasonable substrate PAR

Think on the order of Kessil, Giesemann ie exceptional reflectors combined with high intensity lighting
 
Yes forgot to mention that part, I currrently have a small light fitted with a t8 tube and some java moss with one part attached to driftwood and rest floating, which silver dollar has been eating away at. I thought I would need a strong one like you suggest I'll have a look and get back with any questions, thank you.
 
Silver dollars get big so even with just one, all your $$ plants will eventually be gone - they can also startle easily which tends to hazardous to plants etc as they mature, definitely sort out a gradual lights on/off if you keep this fish

For algae crew look to snails & fish rather than shrimp re your current fish sound as if they'd easily eat a lot of shrimp rather quickly, even snails may be subject to harassment & loss of body parts so monitor that
 
I was looking to move the silver dollar on, I was given two silver dollars when my friends started having problems with his cichlids messing with them, he is more of a temporary guest whilst friend gets another setup.
Do you think the gourami would bother shrimp? He has never bothered with any other fish even when I had fry in tank, he stayed away from them and kept to his own zone, and that was when he was in a high lz1000 so almost doubled the water size for him.

I've had a look at some kessils and have noticed they do quite a lot of different ones is the h80 good? Also noticed it says coverage is up to 24" surface coverage would that mean I would get a wider spread at bottom by enough to only need two instead of three as £450 on lights will eat into the rest of my budget (so will £300 mind but they do seem good quality and hopefully the plants will love them)
 
size of tank is 60"Lx18"Dx23"H. I still haven't decided what to keep in the way of plants, but thinking dwarf baby tears for some carpeting.

Same depth as mine, I have four Kessil 160 tuna suns and six 24w T5, growing my carpet of mini grass and Micro swords has been tricky, as to get enough light at substrate level makes a lot of light in the upper areas of the tank which render aglea an issue. My carpet plants are easy/medium but your thinking of HC thats hard you will need more light than me. I use two inline CO2 atomisers and have used two 6Kg bottles so far this year third is nearly empty too, for HC you will need a excellent [CO2] at the substrate level too. All doable OFC but not for the faint hearted or shallow pockets either IMO
 
I have an A80 but haven't got the tank yet - rumour is the improved reflector design has this light putting out similar intensity/PAR to the A160, no word if/when Kessil will have new model A160 & A360 out with the new reflector design
(expect a reduction in older model pricing if this happens BUT Kessil may hold off until most stock is out of their warehouse)

Only the A360 really does a 24" surface area with decent PAR over the entire area
The A160 does an 18" surface area
The A80 has also been quoted for that 18" surface area

You'll find more A80 discussion on Reef sites than freshwater planted

It's quite possible to gradually add lights & plants to the tank to keep budget in check, have the substrate in wherever you want HC eventually, but only plant the zones where you have the light intensity from 2 Kessils (example), then as budget allows, add another light etc - at this stage you should be able to propagate your existing HC etc into the new planting zone so only lamp cost would need to be budgeted


M 'Monte Carlo' is much more tolerant of light & CO2 variations than HC - if you really want HC I suggest you do a practise run in a nano tank first, it's also much more labour intensive

If you really want HC in this tank, I'd begin with either a dry start & then gradually flood ie don't add water to 23" tank height but only 12", allow it to establish (2-6 weeks depending), then increase water column to 16-18", wait for response (another 3-4 weeks at least) & so on ...
You want to wait at each water height change for HC to adapt to new PAR & CO2 etc, wait through at least 2 trim cycles to be certain the growth you're seeing reflects the new conditions

I mentioned either dry start or ???
- rather than an actual dry start, begin with a water depth of 4" or so, this is enough to require submerse growth but also ensure good light & CO2


Of course this means fish elsewhere during thIs time, but it will allow shrimp colonies to establish - & they'll keep any melting HC in check (ie eaten, so make sure you begin with sufficient shrimp for your HC area)

Gouramis can definitely go anyway wrt shrimp: total ignore, opportunity snatchers, dedicated hunters
This applies to most fish that naturally hunt crustaceans etc in their wild habitat, eg, Betta, Rams, even tetras ... rasboras seem to ignore shrimp activity more than most tetras will (some tetras while not actively hunting shrimp will pay so much attention to shrimp activity that shrimp will mostly remain hidden & subsequently pretty useless as algae crew)
 
Wow Zeus that's a lot more lighting than I would of thought, that's around reef level isn't it?

Yeah I like the look of Monte Carlo as well alto, if that's easier might look at that, obviously haven't budgeted for lights properly at all was thinking more £150-£250 at first, now looks like I will need to spend close to £1000 if not more, hopefully nothing else is more than I thought or I will have a very unhappy wife. Might look more at some metal halides see if I can find any good ones
 
MH is passé - so you should be able to get some good deals on MH systems BUT they are $$ to run as bulb must be replaced every 6-12months (spectrum & energy degrade much more than with T5's etc, LED are much more stable & cheapest to run long term) & in some areas you'll be limited by bulb availability (make sure you've a good online source with cheap shipping etc - I can't get cheap shipping so I always suggest this be part of the budget)

If tank was a more standard height 14-16in, lighting can be done cheaply & well within your initial budget - you can always run the tank with a 14in water column (measure from substrate surface) & add in a mister for an interesting upper tank half BUT if you include many submerse plants, they will quickly block light to substrate plants
A "wall" effect of submerse plants kept trimmed bonsai style could work well (though this setup needs to be added into the budget as well then)

I like deep (tall) tanks as I think most fish prefer less shallow water columns (look at natural habitats & even those considered "shallow" are at least 18" deep).

Note that many of the T5 systems on the market are very poorly designed - reflector material & shape is poor, bulbs placed much too close etc

4 HOT5 properly spaced across your 18" tank width & good reflectors can supply sufficient light to grow most plants, including MC (HC would take some special consideration ;) )
BUT the 60" length is an "odd" so look at costs of running those T5's - you want HO & proper spectrum on these bulbs due to the water column height, I had considered a 60in tank some years ago but couldn't source bulbs locally (& the light unit was going to cost double what I could get on a 72" unit)

3 Kessil A360 would provide a nice clean look, check the classified section here, there were a couple for sale but make sure of warrany transfer etc & consider if you're really getting a deal should a light fail
The tank would also look very good with just 2 A360 to start, adding the third next year etc - or you might get a bit of a discount by purchasing all 3 ... you could do a light at each end & a shaded area in the middle etc
This would also reduce plant start up costs
 
Wow Zeus that's a lot more lighting than I would of thought,

Light has 50cm of water to penetrateplus glass covers, Kessils website advised six to eight , I dont have the kessils high either. Kessils only have a year warrenty also :thumbdown:. Kessil controller £100 too. I use a siemens Programmable Logic Controller 'PLC' to control the lights intensity/ spectrum ,PLC not cheap but does run every thing form lights, CO2, auto dosing, water temp, air pump, plus has holiday mode settings at press of a button.

My tank is 150x60x60cm
 
Didn't even think about actually getting the bulbs for MH will speak to some of my locals and see what they say, one can normally order anything I want in equipment wise. On the 4 HOT5 that's 4 bulbs and not 4 fixtures right? I found a couple that could be ok so just need to locate bulbs to work out price of that as well. I saw on FB somebody was selling 3 kessils a360 for £150 they were the older models apparently but still sounded good, unfortunately they had gone before I found them :(. Also unfortunate is fact that I don't have access to the classified area yet but as soon as I post enough I will check that out. I was thinking of doing a lava rock cave system on one end which wouldn't need lighting so 2 a360s would probably do quite well in that case.
 
I guess with the glass covers and the 50 cm water it would be a lot of light needed. Using a PLC seems quite advanced but I checked out the thread when I joined, could you do the same with something like an arduino and some extension boards? If so then that's some money back to the tank for better equipment
 
Checked out the tank, alto, the kessils do give a very nice well lit tank, and it looks almost natural (to me it does anyway), might have to find some money to buy the 360s now, wonder how wife would react if she knew how much I'm spending (she thinks full thing included tank and stand is £500)
 
Older model Kessils are A350w/A150w indicating a "wide" 120degree lens (60 - 90 degree was "standard" at the time)

- these will no longer have any warranty & run 20-30% lower energy than the A360/A160 series, they were selling as low as half price "new" when the 60 series was released

- you could check direct with Kessil & inquire if any still exist in their stock
 
could you do the same with something like an arduino and some extension boards?

Not sure about that Ian-m would be the best member to ask IMO. PLC isnt hard to do its more the cost, once setup its a dream, no issue if power cut etc, adjust times form PC over Lan, check stuff on mobile. Thinking of doing another PLC for another tank I picked up.
 
I will have to look into it more might try, reason I ask is I have a spare arduino and bunch of electronic bits. If not will probably get a PLC one day anyway.

Sorry alto they didn't actually name model I was reading it off the side of blurred picture so was probably the a350w then. I'll get in contact with them and see if I can get a deal.

Ian these seem exactly like what I think of when I thought of lighting, do you think they would be ok for carpeting the Monte Carlo? It seems to follow just above the 2 watts per gallon rule, maybe if I add a reflector, but it doesn't seem to want me to on the site (on phone at least will have to check on computer when I get chance) it would be ok, if not maybe this could be a starting light with kessils as well, something for me to think about.
 
Back
Top