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Recommendations for a low tech tank

JeffK

JeffK

Member
Joined
7 Feb 2017
Messages
105
Location
Netherlands
Hi everyone,

I'm looking to find the right lighting to go with a new tank I'm picking up in a few days.

I'm most likely going for a Dario tigris biotope, so it'll be low tech. Most probably it'll only contain some Crypt species and a floater, like Hygroryza aristata.

Tank size is 80x50x30 or 32x20x12. So yes, quite a shallow tank but a larger footprint.

I use Fluval Aquasky above all my other tanks, but I'd like to try something else this time.

Any suggestions?
 
Take a look at the Twinstar range, the colour rendition is pretty good at a decent price. And take a look at what our sponsors offer. Either way best to go for something dimmable.

LED Tropical Aquarium Lighting | Planted Aquarium LED Lighting

LED lighting is extremely cheap to run and creates excellent lighting visuals for your planted aquarium They are also very good at growing plants
www.aquariumgardens.co.uk www.aquariumgardens.co.uk
 
Tim Harrison said:
Take a look at the Twinstar range, the colour rendition is pretty good at a decent price. And take a look at what our sponsors offer. Either way best to go for something dimmable.

LED Tropical Aquarium Lighting | Planted Aquarium LED Lighting

LED lighting is extremely cheap to run and creates excellent lighting visuals for your planted aquarium They are also very good at growing plants
www.aquariumgardens.co.uk www.aquariumgardens.co.uk
Click to expand...
Thanks.

Would a Twinstar B 2 series be sufficient enough for a low tech set up?
 
I've used Twinstar B on high tech/energy, working with the most difficult plants in the hobby; no problem whatsoever.

The light of the Twinstar B is a little white and flat, compared to the expensive units; that might be a little drawback.
Another drawback is the slimness of the units. If you have a deep tank (front to back), the coverage is restricted. Because they are relatively cheap, you could run two Twinstar B units side by side to dramatically improve the coverage without surpassing the price of an expensive unit.

You do need a separate control unit to adjust the intensity in the time-controlled manner. The separate Twinstar controller is not ideal as the steps are pretty crude (10-20-30-40- etc %) and the duration is max. 10 hrs. There's also a 3rd party brand available that allows much more fine-tuning. E.g. intense in the morning to stimulate photosynthesis, followed by a drop in intensity till bedtime. Works great.

I have about 7 Twinstar B's units running on low energy planted tanks, mostly containing Dario tigris. If you have females, please let me know.
 
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JeffK said:
Would a Twinstar B 2 series be sufficient enough for a low tech set up?
Click to expand...
Yes for sure. The B series MK II is RGB-W and I think has a very decent colour rendition. And they're relatively cheap units, with an inline controller for dimming and setting the photoperiod.
 
rdk1402 said:
I've used Twinstar B on high tech/energy, working with the most difficult plants in the hobby; no problem whatsoever.

The light of the Twinstar B is a little white and plain, compared to the expensive units; that might be a little drawback.
Another drawback is the slimness of the units. If you have a deep tank (front to back), the coverage is restricted. Because they are relatively cheap, you could run two Twinstar B units side by side to dramatically improve the coverage without surpassing the price of an expensive unit.

You do need a separate control unit to adjust the intensity in the time-controlled manner. The separate Twinstar controller is not ideal as the steps are pretty crude (10-20-30-40- etc %) and the duration is max. 10 hrs. There's also a 3rd party brand available that allows much more fine-tuning. E.g. intense in the morning to stimulate photosynthesis, followed by a drop in intensity till bedtime. Works great.

I have about 7 Twinstar B's units running on low energy planted tanks, mostly containing Dario tigris. If you have females, please let me know.
Click to expand...
Thank you.

Do you have a link for the controller? The one with the better options? I have found a WiFi controller, but I haven't figured out how it works yet.

I'm glad to hear you're keeping Dario tigris. If memory serves me right, females are not that hard to come by. Most shipments contain a pretty much 50/50 ratio. Maybe something's changed?

Dario dario females are a real pain to get, however. Most LFS here get their orders from Ruinemans (at least, they did until Ruinemans increased their prices). They also have Dario kajal in stock right now.
 
JeffK said:
Hi everyone,

I'm looking to find the right lighting to go with a new tank I'm picking up in a few days.

I'm most likely going for a Dario tigris biotope, so it'll be low tech. Most probably it'll only contain some Crypt species and a floater, like Hygroryza aristata.

Tank size is 80x50x30 or 32x20x12. So yes, quite a shallow tank but a larger footprint.

I use Fluval Aquasky above all my other tanks, but I'd like to try something else this time.

Any suggestions?
Click to expand...
First why do you not want the Aquasky?
Almost every light on the market will be fine for a shallow tank with a few weak exceptions. Even those are cheap enough to do 2 to better the spread and raise the PAR.

Now 30" lights (light that have a good spread/fit for 30" tanks) are a bit problematic.

not a bad fit. $31, Simple control.
Waterproof
20W
Pairs super-bright 6500K white LEDs with 460nm blue, and 660nm red LEDs, high output LED chips with 120° angle provide optimal spread and color blending, promoting healthy, vibrant growth of fish and aquatic plants
Click to expand...
Hyggar is similar......

Hyggar looks to have full channel control but to be honest, watching the vid on programming was painful.. :(
 
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oreo57 said:
First why do you not want the Aquasky?
Almost every light on the market will be fine for a shallow tank with a few weak exceptions. Even those are cheap enough to do 2 to better the spread and raise the PAR.

Now 30" lights (light that have a good spread/fit for 30" tanks) are a bit problematic.

not a bad fit. $31, Simple control.
Waterproof
20W

Hyggar is similar......

Hyggar looks to have full channel control but to be honest, watching the vid on programming was painful.. :(
Click to expand...
Thank you for the suggestions. I like to have a 'full' Bluetooth control, so I guess I can't really go for the cheapest lights.

I have the Aquasky above my other tanks. I might as well go for it again, but I'm open to try new lights to see if others are more to my liking.
 
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