Lockdown hobby you say?

[LightingBamboozled]

Hello All,

I am a once long time fishkeeper who had to give it all up when I moved to the expensive end of the country. Having moved back I've dug all my old kit out of storage and lockdown seemed the perfect time to get the tanks going again. I am still primarily in it for the fish but I wanted to take a bit more care to do the plants right (or at least better) this time. I'll save a huge and detailed info dump for a journal. But first here is how the tank looked 28 days ago when I planted it.





Hello All

 

[noodlesuk]

Welcome back to the hobby! I'm sure as you spend more time on the forum, you'll soon be wanting to add loads more plants to your setup, it gets very addictive. Looks like a good start. The best tip I picked up on here was to start with lots of plant mass, that helps with the fight against algae.

 

[Wolf6]

Welcome 😀

 

[Dr Mike Oxgreen]

Welcome!

I agree with noodlesuk - you want roughly three to four times as many plants as you’ve currently got! 🙂

 

[sparkyweasel]

Welcome! 🙂

 

[LightingBamboozled]

Thanks for the warm welcome. I'm sure I will want more plants but I'll need to get the basics sorted first. I've just realised (because of having lighting issues) I've been running two 80W t5's off a twin 54W ballast. So that's a problem. I either need to buy a Twin 80W ballast or find some LED's suitable for a 5ft tank that's 2ft deep. I'm a little worried about not getting the brightness out of LED's because they do all look a little dimmer in photos.

 

[Blade7]

Welcome back to the hobby, I’m im exactly the same boat after over a decade away, and returned to the hobby in August this year - some big changes, somethings exactly the same lol

 

[rebel]

T5 light! Nice to see legacy hardware.

 

[LightingBamboozled]

T5 light! Nice to see legacy hardware.

If you think the T5 is legacy you should see the T8 and T12 ballasts and bulbs I have for the 100L Glass tank upstairs.

But I really don't understand LED lighting, it all looks too short, too cheap and like it's not designed to actually attach to a tank. And for medium lighting some places are recommending 2 £200 LED strips for my tank, but to upgrade the T5s would only be about £100.

 

[Blade7]

Got rid of my metal halides this year - for me LED.s are the biggest improvement I’ve seen in the hobby. I’m experimenting with them currently and have high end strips and online cheaper units and I’m pretty impressed with both.

 

[rebel]

And for medium lighting some places are recommending 2 £200 LED strips for my tank, but to upgrade the T5s would only be about £100.

If it looks bright in your eye, it should be enough for the plants. T5 is plenty powerful that tank you have pictured.