Am I missing something? Question about tanks/hoods/lighting, etc.

mwelin

mwelin

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Nov 18, 2007
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Why is this so complicated?! We've decided we want to start adding some low light plants to our tank to gradually replace the fakes we currently have.

We have a 45 gallon tank. We started out with a strip light fixture 36" (two bulbs) and a glass top. But the fixture was just a smidge too wide so in order to open the glass for feedings we had to take off the wood hood, the light fixture and then open the glass and do whatever we needed to do and then put everything back together. This was a PITA, IMO.

So we bought an all in one hood...but it only has one 24" bulb. We can't even manage to have 1 WPG with a 24" bulb! WTH? At least it wasn't a total PITA to feed and do water changes but now that we want to add some plants we definitely need to increase the watts.

We're going back to the glass top and the strip light fixture (we're having a new glass top cut at a local glass place so that the light fixture won't prevent us from opening the top but I think we're still going to be below 1.5 WPG which is our goal given that we're aiming for low light, slightly planted with no extra CO2. Based on what I'm finding putting the 2 brightest 36" bulbs in I can find will only bring me to about 60 watts and I think we really need to be around 67. So, what is the answer to getting 7 extra watts? The solutions I've been finding seem to be a bit overkill for my situation.
 
AH-Supply retrofit kits. Chances are you could put a 96W 6500K PC bulb in your old strip enclosure for ~$100. There would be a little drilling & screwing involved, and you have tocome up w/ a way to get it a few inches above your glass, but it would be well worth it. I have one over my 46g (click lower portion of sig for pic). Or you could ditch the glass, mount the reflector & bulb in your canopy and not sweat the glass issue, as long as the bulb is at least a few inches above the water.
 
I looked at those but it seemed like I'd end up with way more light than I need which would bring on algae growth? Maybe (likely) I'm just confused.

Our canopy (could not think of that word!) is weird. It has no back so we'd have to add one and the top is not hinged...not sure how to explain it but we could not figure out any way to mount the lights in there and the hubby is pretty handy. We'd likely have to build an entirely new canopy and try to match the stand which is just a lot more work than I wanted to get into, lol.

Really I guess our only option is to "soup up" our current light but I'm worried about going too nuts with the light.
 
I would get what you want and figure it out from there. You know what you want and know what you "think" you need, so work from there. If you follow all recomendations from everyone in here (they do know what they are talking about in general) you will never get it right.Too much information at one time is sometimes worse than none at all. (I don't mean that in any bad way, but I learned the hard way that what works for someone in Australia does not always apply to me in Canada even though we have the same problem.)
Experiment, try everything that you think you know and have learned. Ultimately, it takes you to really want it to work, because there is no "MIRACLE CURE" for anything. Anything can and will work, if applied in the right situation. What I do in my tanks might not work in yours.

Sorry....lol
If you do not know exactly what to do, stay low tech.....Low lighting 1-1.5 wpg) no CO2 and grow things until you are not happy with what you are limited to. Then, and only then, would I start looking at high lighting and CO2 injection.
The solution to any given problem is more easily assertained when lesser amount of variables are involved....


sorry,,,been drinking and this how I feel...lol
WOW. just read that over before pasting and it is terrible, but makes sense, so I am posting anyway.
 
Last edited:
Plecosterone said:
sorry,,,been drinking and this how I feel...lol
WOW. just read that over before pasting and it is terrible, but makes sense, so I am posting anyway.
Click to expand...

Heh. Well it sort of makes sense...maybe it would make more sense if I had a glass or two of wine? :-p

What I did pick out of it is that low lighting is 1-1.5 WPG. I thought I needed 1.5 minimum but I guess I don't need to sweat the 7 Watts I thought I needed.

There is just way too much conflicting information on the internets when you're a noob. One of these days I'll feel like I've learned SOMETHING. Right now my fish just pretty much leave me stumped on a daily basis. :grinyes:

Thanks for the help.
 
You now have an idea of the type of plants you intend to grow. Go to AH supply, use their help system. What they did for me was to recommend which of their backfit kits would best fit my needs for each tank. In one case it was one of their fixtures, in the other case they indicated that my particular tank was not well suited to one of their fixtures so they recommended an alternate plan. I found them very helpful and knowledgeable about what is available and not shy about recommending something that they could not supply. Its more like they cared about me getting it right.
 
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