what are my lighting options?

[canufeelme]

I have the walmart 55g kit. came with the tank, lights, heater, and other little stuff. Its pretty cool. Its my first tank so i didnt want to shell out to much cash and then not enjoy this hobby. okay well im hooked now. i put some plants in and i have been reading that i should have better lighting for them. i dont know what to do. the lights are one single 15w bulb on each side. the bulbs are im guessing considered 18" as the real bulb length is 17 if you dont count the pins. the housing is 23" long. from what ive read i need 165wpg..im far from that! i dont want to spend a ton of money as im tryin to save up for a ring....if ya know what i mean.

any help would be awesome.

thanks,

Nick

[Onikun]

By bulb do you mean flourescent strip bulbs or regular incandescent bulbs? If you are using regular incandescent bulbs then an easy solution to get better lighting would be just to replace them with compact flourescent screw in light bulbs. (I recommend Phillips daylight marathon, can be bought at home depot). If you mean that it has flourescent strip lights then you may need to upgrade the whole lighting fixture. BUT FIRST lets look at what type of plants you are keeping.

Some plants do not require much lighting at all ie. java fern, java moss, hornwort and some others.

By the sounds of it though you have flourescent strip lighting. I don't know where you read 165wpg but that would be OVERKILL if not impossible. Anyway those wpg are not a real good measure of how much lighting you require because watts is just how much power the light consumes, it is not directly correlated to output.

If you want to upgrade your lighting consider how much you would like to spend. Coralife freshwater normal flourescent (t5 bulbs) strips are fairly inexpensive and have good output.


Here are some options for you
http://www.bigalsonline.com/catalog/category.xml?pcid1=1843;category_id=1875

http://www.bigalsonline.com/catalog/category.xml?category_id=1853;ppp=16;page=2;sort=; pcid1=1843;pcid2=;breadcrumb=

You may want to get a different length depending on how you want to set it up above your tank.

[canufeelme]

sorry i ment a total 0f 165watts, not 165wpg. haha yea thats kind of a lot. yes i have strips not the screw in bulbs. im not sure what type of plants i bought.....i forgot. i need to write their names down as i buy things.

two of the three plants have roots and then the other was just a stem. he said i can let it float on the top or stick it in the gravel. it was really thin with tiny leaves that go up it. the other has fat short leaves and the last one has longer skiny leaves.

[TetraFreak]

Here's what I did with my 55 gal...

Yes, I bought the same setup from Wally-Mart.

Found a 4 x 55W CF fixture on ebay, Including shipping, it cost me $85
Petsmart purchase: 2 x 24" glass tops @ ~$10 ea.
I took one of the cheesy fixtures that came with the tank and use the extra 15 Watts over my 25 Gal to give that tank 45 Watts.

With the CF fixture, 2 of the 4 bulbs are actinic so I simply don't use that bank of lights right now, still gives a solid 2WPG and my plants love it. Yes, I'll be getting 2 more regular CF's in a few weeks when money allows.

the current 2 x 55W lighting is letting Cabomba grow like crazy, also Anachairis, Mermaid, & Red Ludwegia going crazy too!

Just sharing what I'm doing with my 55 Gal

let me know by PM if you're interested in the dealer that I bought my CF Fixture from.


Good Luck!

-TF

[joephys]

Onikun hit it right it dead on! Java vern, some crypts (var. Lutea) and anubias are ok with low light.

[tai95]

If you don't want to spend a lot of money, You could just DIY.



Yes, I bought the same setup from Wally-Mart.

Found a 4 x 55W CF fixture on ebay, Including shipping, it cost me $85
Petsmart purchase: 2 x 24" glass tops @ ~$10 ea.

You could skip the CF for now, and just buy a 4 foot shop light (about $10.00)
Get some of the GE 6500k bulbs. (about $10.00)
Skip the actual glass top made for aquariums and get a hardware store to cut you some plate glass. Leave a few inches at the back so you can feed the fish. (about $5-$6)
It may not be the nicest tank to look at, but you've more than doubled your watts for $25.00.

[canufeelme]

i have an air pump running 4 bubble stones in the tank. should those only be ran at night only? i got them and the plants at the same time and have been running the air pump all the time (few days now). i thought that would be good for the tank but i think i read that the air pump should be on at night. i could be wrong. thanks for the help

[minnesotagal866]

I have the same walmart set-up. I ordered a retrofit from aquarium hobbyist supply (AHS) and set up 2 WPG in the existing hoods. My hubby set it up in about 45 minutes. It's a little over $100 and works great! Website is ahsupply.com

jackie

[Onikun]

i have an air pump running 4 bubble stones in the tank. should those only be ran at night only? i got them and the plants at the same time and have been running the air pump all the time (few days now). i thought that would be good for the tank but i think i read that the air pump should be on at night. i could be wrong. thanks for the help

I personally wouldn't run it because you'll be driving away a lot of Co2 thats beneficial to plant growth.

[canufeelme]

I personally wouldn't run it because you'll be driving away a lot of Co2 thats beneficial to plant growth.

wouldnt run it at all? i had no idea it would be bad for the plants.

[canufeelme]

okay i went to home depot on my lunch break and got some stuff. two 2x48" 40wt shop lights (15$) and 2 aquarium bulbs (20$) and 2 sun light bulbs (12$) and two hinges (3$) for the hood im going to build tonight. that gives me 160watts for the tank. that should be way better!

[tai95]

okay i went to home depot on my lunch break and got some stuff. two 2x48" 40wt shop lights (15$) and 2 aquarium bulbs (20$) and 2 sun light bulbs (12$) and two hinges (3$) for the hood im going to build tonight. that gives me 160watts for the tank. that should be way better!

That will be much better. With that much of an increase in lighting you may end up getting a bad algae outbreak. You should probably run them in stages. One set on for a couple of hours, Then both for a few hours, then one set again. You'll eventually figure out how much light you can get away with without algae taking over. Get yourself a coule of timers and you'll be fine.

[Onikun]

wouldnt run it at all? i had no idea it would be bad for the plants.

yep thats right. NOT AT ALL. and if you're using a HOB powerfilter i'd raise the water level high enough so that there is minimal splashing as that drives away co2 as well.

With all that new lighting you may consider injecting co2 as well. Theres a cheap DIY way.

http://www.qsl.net/w2wdx/aquaria/diyco2.html

[canufeelme]

That will be much better. With that much of an increase in lighting you may end up getting a bad algae outbreak. You should probably run them in stages. One set on for a couple of hours, Then both for a few hours, then one set again. You'll eventually figure out how much light you can get away with without algae taking over. Get yourself a coule of timers and you'll be fine.

thanks for the tip......the bad thing is i didnt read this til now and i turned the lights on before i left for work....hope i dont come home to algae take over! how does light affect algae?


yep thats right. NOT AT ALL. and if you're using a HOB powerfilter i'd raise the water level high enough so that there is minimal splashing as that drives away co2 as well.

With all that new lighting you may consider injecting co2 as well. Theres a cheap DIY way.

http://www.qsl.net/w2wdx/aquaria/diyco2.html

well that sucks...the bubbles are cool! hahaha. ive been reading around for a diy co2 set up. thanks for that link.

[artemis]

160 watts over a 55 gallon tank comes to nearly 3 watts per gallon. At that lighting level, you're going to need to inject CO2 and start a regular fertilizing dosing regimen, or you're going to have serious algae problems. I suggest either cutting your lighting back to around 2 watts per gallon, or going over to the Aquatic Plants forum and start reading up on how to manage a high-light, high-tech planted tank.

[canufeelme]

160 watts over a 55 gallon tank comes to nearly 3 watts per gallon. At that lighting level, you're going to need to inject CO2 and start a regular fertilizing dosing regimen, or you're going to have serious algae problems. I suggest either cutting your lighting back to around 2 watts per gallon, or going over to the Aquatic Plants forum and start reading up on how to manage a high-light, high-tech planted tank.

im reading up on that now! i may just take one bulb out..that puts me to a lil over 2wpg

[raymond_h2002]

wouldnt run it at all? i had no idea it would be bad for the plants.

I'm not so sure about that. It really depends on your fishload. When your lights go out, your water will be saturated with oxygen, but both plants *and* fish will consume it starting at the beginning of the dark cycle until lights go on again. If your fish are gasping in the morning, it means they depleted the oxygen and cannot last the night. A solution to this is to run a bubble wand some time in the middle of the night, until the lights go on to help get oxygen in the water. This will gas out CO2 as well, but there's no reason to have it on at night anyway. Be sure to have a safe kH level to minimize pH swings.

If CO2 production is very high and is not shut off at night, it will gas off and blanket the surface of the water, impeding surface O2 exchange. In this case, it's recommended to bubble once the lights go off. This wouldn't be a problem with DIY CO2, since you probably won't produce that much gas.. and if you have do pressurized co2, then you'd probably have it shut off via solenoid/timer anyway.