46 gal FW planted tank with the lighting blues: need lighting system recommendations

Flory

Flory

AC Members
Dec 22, 2007
27
0
0
Benicia, California
Greetings all. My 46-gal tank has been established (rainbows, various small cats, rasboras, hillstream loaches) for over five years. A couple of years ago I tried live plants for the first time, and after some experimenting I settled on java fern and Anubias barteri, which are lower-light species (30w per 25 gal). The GLO HO single-bulb T5 light system that I got at the time of planting was too powerful for these plants, was too bright for my sensitive eyes, and caused the fish to lurk under leaves. So I changed the HO bulb to a Colormax NO T5. Everything was fine for about 22 months, and the plant-biofilter-fish nitrogen cycle was going well with fertilization. Algae was under control with snails, bristlenose and other cats, and hillstream loaches. Then one day the ballast died. The light was still under warranty, but (short version) Hagen does not make this fixture any more so they could not replace it with a new one. After much delay they sent me a check; slow process, but satisfactory. Amazon still had some units in stock, so I bought two successive units of the same fixture. Each died after a few days. I returned them both to Amazon as defective (also they were not packaged protectively for shipping). The upshot is that my plants have been without good light for about 4 months, and they are in terrible shape. The java fern in particular is in tatters. Each time a fixture dies, I've had to set up a jerry-rig system with two full-spectrum OTT lights, one standing and one task lamp. (These are excellent lamps for human eyes but are not intended for aquarium use.) They have been in place for several weeks since the last defective light was returned. Now I want to buy a new system for my tank that will properly light the plants and fish for their health and to bring out their beauty. I want to stay with lower-light species of plants; I don't want to use CO2; the substrate is medium-light gravel; and the tank takes a 36" fixture. Recommendations, please? I am willing to invest in a better fixture that suits my needs. Thanks!
 
Catalina makes nice fixtures! Email them and they can make you a custom, but I am pretty sure they have a low-med lighting fixture(1 or 2 T5 bulbs plant growth) for almost every normal tank size/dimension...

If you are willing to pay more $$$ to save some $$$ and be green, go LED:)
check out GLA's LEDS...pricey but worth it
OR
This worked pretty well on my 20G before I shut it down, and it is VERY CHEAP so no worries about money...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Aquarium-Fi...t=LH_DefaultDomain_0&var=&hash=item3f175ea5d9
 
I went with this product a couple of months ago as I jumped into live plants and have been satisfied with the results so far, even as a novice. I can't say that I'm getting optimal plant growth, but plants look healthy and show new growth....though I am subsidizing with Flourish Excel and with Flourish tabs as well (but no mechanical CO2)...growing an amazon sword, 2 red wendtii, golden lloydiella, tall (previously cut from another established owner's tank) rotala and recently added narrow leaf microsword.

http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=12319439&f=PAD%2FpsNotAvailInUS%2FNo

I have the 48" and filled both expansion slots....one with another white and one with a colormax bulb. Found that a local LFS actually sold the bulbs cheaper than even amazon, which amazed me.

I liked the idea of LED, have noticed the surface temp of the water to be much cooler than the ancient single bulb I had (pre-dated T5's even) and gives great illumination but not hard on the eyes (though mine is enclosed in a formal hood and rests on a plastic hood)....the light does get annoying towards the front (light leakage out of the gap between the lights and plastic hood) if I don't have the decorative hood on as it is bright. The moon light feature is kinda neat but rarely use it as its on same dedicated switch and I run my lights on a daily timer.
 
Thanks very much to all who replied. After more research, I decided on the Aqueon LED Aquarium Light with an added Colormax strip. A nearby aquarium store was able to get them for me overnight, and the modular fixture was very easy to set up. The tank looks lovely now, the fishes' colors glow, and the Colormax should help the plants recover their health. If the java fern doesn't start looking better in a month or two, I may just replace it. Now I can think about adding fish, since there has been some attrition during the "eclipse" period. More rasboras and rainbows!
 
Good luck with that. Aqueon LED fixtures are not known for having high PAR ratings. Hopefully, it'll be enough to feed your low light plants.
 
I was given (by Aqueon directly) that 3 bulbs would put out 41 PAR about 18" from source, 1 bulb would be 27 PAR. I understand its on the low end but so far things seem fine in my tank.



***EDIT: Went back to my email and found that it was actually 2 tubes putting out 27 PAR, 3 tubes put out 41 PAR...and that was measured at 12" from bulbs, not 18".....sorry
 
Last edited:
good luck! i think u should be fine for low lights...if it does not work out(i hope i don't jinx it lol), maybe try getting a med light fixture in case u ever wanna try med plants and just to be safe for the low ones as well
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom