Has anyone ever....

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Lillyan

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Jan 26, 2010
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....Lowered the water level, dropped down the lighting into the tank and close up the top??
My 110 extra tall doesn't look like it will sell and my plants are ~hating~ how far away the light is.
So....I was thinking I should remove the 6in of sand [failed to help them grow by being up higher] and drop the water level down 8-10 inches. After that, I'd find new lighting that would fit inside the tank, 2-3 inches above the new water's surface level. Then toss on the glass tops, leaving gaps for air and heat exchange.

Has anyone done this? It won't be a paludarium, I don't want plants growing up and out, I just want to bring the light closer to my plants.
I know it might end up looking weird and strange, but I'm sick of dealing with this tank's height and not having the majority of the plants thriving. The rotala is loving it, shot right up and more with no trouble what so ever. I can't have the whole tank a giant swamp of rotala, little weirder than having the lights in the tank, lol.

So, thoughts, tips, pictures if anyone has done this before?
 

EdaxFlamma

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Jun 1, 2009
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My guess would be that you would still have heat issues. If you are entertaining the idea of getting new lighting anyway, I would say go for an upgrade instead. For those who are unfamiliar with your setup (myself included) what plants and equipment do you currently have set up on the tank?
 

wesleydnunder

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Yeah, a little more info on equip would help. If your tank is 30" deep and you're thinking of dropping the depth say, 10", the net difference to the plants will be zero. When you're dealing with depth differences in the glass boxes we keep, there is virtually no measurable difference in light attenuation between one 10 inches deeper or shallower. If our tanks were 15 to 30 FEET deep it'd be a different story. A quality fixture in the 25 to 30 lux per sq. in. range and a lamp color temp between 5,000K and 8,800K should grow just about anything you want to in your tank. Mark
 

Lillyan

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I use the same lights on my 40 and my 20 gallon tanks, same plants. I've had them in a 75g and they were fine. When I had them in a 90, they were having some trouble, but still growing. Now in the 110, they are at a stand still and because of that, get a bit of algae on them.
Not really worried about heat, winter is coming and the tank will need the heat from the lamps to help keep warm.

I use shop lights, two 2bulb fixtures, so 160watts. I hear we aren't judging lights on watts anymore....so w/e the new way of judging is beyond me. lol. Bulbs were changed 3-4mo ago. On roughly the same hours the Sun is up so the house doesn't 'glow in the dark'.

Plants would be; crypts, hygro, rotala, tiger lily, green lily of some kind, melon sword, vals. I think that's it.
When I moved the crypts that are on wood up higher, they started growing better.

Recent picture
 

wesleydnunder

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The problem is with your shop lights. They're made to disperse the light out, and not directly down. You need a fixture with a good reflector that focuses the light down into the tank. Take a look at some of the lights at AH Supply. Mark
 

THE V

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Yeah, a little more info on equip would help. If your tank is 30" deep and you're thinking of dropping the depth say, 10", the net difference to the plants will be zero. When you're dealing with depth differences in the glass boxes we keep, there is virtually no measurable difference in light attenuation between one 10 inches deeper or shallower. If our tanks were 15 to 30 FEET deep it'd be a different story. A quality fixture in the 25 to 30 lux per sq. in. range and a lamp color temp between 5,000K and 8,800K should grow just about anything you want to in your tank. Mark
Completely false statement. Please research the inverse square law. The closer you are to the light the faster intensity of the light reduces as you move away from the lamp. A leaf that is 2inches away fron a lamp recieves 1/4 the light as one 1 inch away. A leaf that is 12 inches away from the recieves 1/4 of the light of one 6 inches away.

Taller tanks present a real challenge. 160W of T12 light is not really enough over a 24" tank. You"ll need to look at something with at least double the output to grow stuff well.

It really doesn't matter if its a fancy light our a DIY CFL job. As long as you get the intensity up there. I personally use 10 x 23W CFL'S on my low tech tank. Grows stuff really well.
 

ZorroNet

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V, I also have a tall tank (the one my Amazon Sword is in that you commented on earlier), and I have changed my lighting a few times looking at the way the substrate light reflection changes each time. The best I have come up with are 23W CFLs in silver work light reflectors (the cheap Hershey Kiss shaped ones with the squeeze clamps). I have an old school fluorescent sitting on top in the middle and 2 of the work light rigs on either side of it resting on sheets of white cloroplast (political yard sign material) to give it more of a supplemental glow rather than intense light. Everything in the tank greened up after I added the 23W CFLs... maybe the glow approach worked. I had all that stuff hanging around, so I figured it was worth a try!
 
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