Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by LED on July 26, 2012 at 1:57am

cheap lights bad idea.

 what are the dimensions of the tank? 

are you planning on having low to medium light demanding plants or  High light demanding?

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Permalink Reply by Jose Arocho on July 26, 2012 at 2:04am

Low Light, dimensions are 46 long  23 depth 18 wide

 

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Permalink Reply by LED on July 26, 2012 at 2:34am

thats 828 square inches.  if you have 10,000 lumens of light then that would be ~12 L/in^2

definately use t5 or even t5 HO  listed below (regular t5 listed)

http://amzn.to/QIAJHu

http://amzn.to/QIANXJ

even metal halid if you want.      

http://bit.ly/QIBQXJ

but buy the correct bulb type

http://bit.ly/QIBXCG

if you want LED then reply asking for it lol

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Permalink Reply by aduman on July 28, 2012 at 11:18pm

Question I have 120 gallon tank and in the process of getting it ready established before summer ends and need some advice on what type of lighting do I need to run for this tank. Dimension are 60' L x 18" W x 26" H.

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Permalink Reply by Robert Jango on July 28, 2012 at 11:38pm

You need about 10 lumens per square inch of surface area:

60 X 18 = 1080 square inches of surface area.

1080 X 10 = 10800 Lumens.

You could probably get away with half that amount (5000 lumens) and you could  also quadruple it, but 10,000 lumens is fine.

Make sure the color temperature of your bulbs is between 5000 and 6700K. It doesn't matter what kind of lamps or bulbs you use as long as they fall within these parameters.

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Permalink Reply by LED on July 31, 2012 at 12:01am

Thanks to Toan Pham heres a link

http://www.aquatraders.com/20-inch-4x18W-T5-Aquarium-Light-Fixture-...

best price i've ever seen

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Permalink Reply by LED on July 26, 2012 at 2:38am

for everyone that's reading this its not 100 gallons its 82.4 gallons

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Permalink Reply by Robert Jango on July 26, 2012 at 9:47pm

828 square inches of surface area means you need at least 4140 lumens (828 X 5) evenly distributed over the surface of the tank. 8280 lumens would be great and I've read you can go as high as 40 lumens per sq/inch (33,000 lumens), but I wouldn't try it unless I had a dense thicket of water lilies and Amazon Swords. The only other consideration is color temperature and the generally accepted range is between 5000K - 6700K. 

Just stay within these parameters and it doesn't matter what kind of lamps or bulbs you use.  Oh yeah - almost forgot - direct sunlight will work miracles on plants. 

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Permalink Reply by LED on August 2, 2012 at 6:20pm

since he's wanting low light plants i would say 40 L /in^2 is too much light.  i dont think thats what he wants

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Permalink Reply by Robert Jango on February 20, 2013 at 3:54pm

A reflector increases the amount of light in a tank but won't make it go deeper. Certain colors in light go deeper than others. For example, the blue spectrum carries deeper than the red. 

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Permalink Reply by Robert Jango on February 24, 2013 at 12:59am

Shop lights are great, but if you're growing plants don't skimp on the bulbs. Make sure they're 6500K. Of course the cheapest light is sunlight and it also happens to be the best.

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