combining low and high light areas in a plant tank...

loaches r cool

loaches r cool

Snail Terminator
Feb 15, 2006
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Gahanna, Ohio
tristan.homelinux.net
I am trying to come up with a good lighting scheme on my new tank. Since its an 8-footer this is a pretty big task, and cost me a good chunk of change :eek: . I am wanting to do metal halide, but will suppliment with T5HO as well. I was thinking, to save on the cost of hallides, and the added current draw (and electric bill) what if I just did 2 metal halides to cover the inner 4 to 6 foot area of the tank, and 1 to 2 foot ends would simply be low light plants? This is what I was thinking:


------T5------ ------T5------
. . . . . . .MH . . . . MH . . . . . .
------T5------ ------T5------

Edit> the stupid forum software wont let me put in empty spaces so I have put dots with the MH, ignroe the dots they mean nothing.

I was thinking about using the Icecap 660 on the T5's with Icecap reflectors, so even with just the t5's on I'd still be pushing about 1.5wpg since the icecap will drive T5's to 80-85W each. And from what I hear 2wpg is plenty on a large tank. The metal halides would probably just run for something like 4 hours or so (obviously I'd have to experiment with the numbers), and at 175W each would give a total of just a hair under 3wpg peak.

Nothing set in stone yet though.
 
You can do that. Think in terms of islands of light. You grow low light plants where there is low light. Medium light plants where there is medium light and difficult high light plants under the halides.


In a tank that size you are going to get daylight unless you put it in a very dark place. How strong are the halides?
 
Why not spend a bit more, and have 3 MHs cover the span? Considering a good spider reflector will get you close to 3 feet of coverage, you can get 3 MHs and get decent lighting the entire span of your tank. You've spent this much already. A bit more to make it look amazing...worth it?
 
My original plan was for 3 halides stretched over the length. They will more than likely be 175W. I may still do this. It will either be with spider reflectors or I have seen the PFO parallel reflectors seem to spread the light out more evenly so I might opt for those, using the 15" one on each bulb, but will cost a bit more than the spiders ($15-20 more per each light).

The reason I was thinking about only going with two is that I like a lot of the low light plants anyhow, crypts and java ferns, for example, so I guess I just didnt need the extra light so long as I scape it accordingly and would save me about $200 or so in cost and also the extra watt hours on the E bill (not to mention pushing my circuit to capacity). I can easily add a third since its all diy anyway.
 
I think that not only will your plan work, but it will look pretty nifty as well! Be sure to post pics when you're done.
 
I have seen a few tanks that where set up in that way. One was very bright at one end to almost dark at the other. With the driftwood and rock placement it looked like the dark end was under an overhead root or overhand. It was an stunning effect.
 
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