What about the Coralifes BK? Although Matt isn't hip on them, I am kinda' thinking that we may be overcooking the lights (no pun intended).
150 Gallon Build Thread ... From the Start
- Thread starter WaywardSon
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What about the Coralifes BK? Although Matt isn't hip on them, I am kinda' thinking that we may be overcooking the lights (no pun intended).
coralife are great but Matt is right, less ppl use them on deep tanks.
perhaps plantbrain the plant guru himself can come and give some advice to you on which lighting would be best for your tank size/wallet
perhaps plantbrain the plant guru himself can come and give some advice to you on which lighting would be best for your tank size/wallet
Question - wouldn't it make sense for somebody to make / sell a light for a planted 150? They gotta' be out there - do they all use MH?
one thing to keep in mind with the kind of wattage we are talking about for a tank this size (450+ W) is that you will need to have a fair bit of money set aside at the beginning to invest in a lot of plants. and I mean a lot.
otherwise, if you plant too sparsely with 450 or so watts of light on the tank and you are adding fertilizers, if you don't have enough plant matter to out compete algae you can end up with green water or other types of pest algae (eg black beard algae)
extreme wattage requires lots of plants to keep things balanced, otherwise the algae can win out.
one way to avoid this would be to perhaps only add a few of the strip lights at the beginning as you are planting things up, perhaps only putting say 4 lights across for example instead of 6.
as the plants beging to grow and you are planting the trimmings, addding more plants etc. then you can add the other lights and slowly begin to increase your fertilizer dosage etc.
just something to keep in mind.
otherwise, if you plant too sparsely with 450 or so watts of light on the tank and you are adding fertilizers, if you don't have enough plant matter to out compete algae you can end up with green water or other types of pest algae (eg black beard algae)
extreme wattage requires lots of plants to keep things balanced, otherwise the algae can win out.
one way to avoid this would be to perhaps only add a few of the strip lights at the beginning as you are planting things up, perhaps only putting say 4 lights across for example instead of 6.
as the plants beging to grow and you are planting the trimmings, addding more plants etc. then you can add the other lights and slowly begin to increase your fertilizer dosage etc.
just something to keep in mind.
^^ i agree though what people do is run 1/2 the lights for this many hrs and do a midnight burst of full lighting for the rest of the day.
Nova extreme pro 72" 12x39w bulbs you will need to replace 6 of them since they are actinic $720 (without bulb replacement)
(basically will be the same as the 6 strips of 2x39w and wont need to replace bulbs)
Nova extreme pro 72" 12x39w bulbs you will need to replace 6 of them since they are actinic $720 (without bulb replacement)
(basically will be the same as the 6 strips of 2x39w and wont need to replace bulbs)
Many people buy the 48" Corallife for a 55 and 2-3 weeks later come back saying they are having excessive algae problems. This is mainly becuase the light to plant ratio is out of wack. 12voltman hit a hidden point square on the nose. Thank you for that btw. I never even thought about that.
no problem. I have quite a bit of experence with planted tanks over the years, but the biggest I have ever maintained was a 92 gallon corner bow that had 3 power compact strips from front to back, with c02. giant sword plants thats for sure. I wish I had pics of that one..
Ah swords. Great plant, but man do they make their claim in the tank. To link this with the post though, swords would be great for this tank in that they wouldn't outgrow it. Granted they may shadow and kill the smaller plants, but isn't that how survival works 
. No really though Swords in a 150 would work great as a background plant. You just have to make sure they are trimmed back so they don't cast a shadow on the less dominant vegetation. Here is a link of a awesome sword tank
http://showcase.aquatic-gardeners.org/2004.cgi?&Scale=514&op=showcase&category=0&vol=3&id=141
. No really though Swords in a 150 would work great as a background plant. You just have to make sure they are trimmed back so they don't cast a shadow on the less dominant vegetation. Here is a link of a awesome sword tank http://showcase.aquatic-gardeners.org/2004.cgi?&Scale=514&op=showcase&category=0&vol=3&id=141
12 Volt Man - excellent! I jammed my 45 gallon full of plants to offset the algae with all the new (3.7 wpg) light that was being introduced (the tank was a conversion over to heavily planted). I was fortunate enough to keep it balanced (knock on wood and thanks to many on this forum - BK, thanks again!). Trying to jam a 150 full of plants to offset algae growth doesn't seem to be very feasible. Too much trouble in the works there! Blasting it with 400 - 500 watts and hoping for the best will likely end in disaster!
The plan: Plant - not completely (nearly impossible) - but with a reasonable amount of fast growing plants and as you say 12 Volt a percentage of your end-total lighting. As / after those plants grow in, add more light to support the next "wave" of plants to be added, most of which will require higher lighting. Even go so far as to "replace" some of the original fast growers with the final tank residents!
There may be two or three phases of plantings and lighting increases. But, after all, that's the hobby - time!
The plan: Plant - not completely (nearly impossible) - but with a reasonable amount of fast growing plants and as you say 12 Volt a percentage of your end-total lighting. As / after those plants grow in, add more light to support the next "wave" of plants to be added, most of which will require higher lighting. Even go so far as to "replace" some of the original fast growers with the final tank residents!
There may be two or three phases of plantings and lighting increases. But, after all, that's the hobby - time!
