Bowfront 46/lighting

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fishguy74

AC Members
Jul 2, 2005
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Ok I need some opinions. I'm getting my feet wet again so to speak as I have been out of this hobby for quite some time. I love planted tanks and feel that in the long run they will be eaiser to maintain, not to mention easier to look at. I need opinions on lighting though. I want to be able to grow a wide viriety of plants but not inject co2. Is this possible? I'm not concerned about growth rate, but I am concerned about the health of the plants so that would make me think the 2 go hand in hand.

I was looking at the coralight 2 bulb 36" fixture. Looks nice but that would put me just over 4 watts per gallon. Actually maybe more than that when you consider the tank volume lost to substrate/decorations.

Are there any other pre-made fixtures that are maybe a little more reasonable in price that might be a better option? I've been looking at AH Supply too. I'm not afraid of a project so any input here is appreciated. Thanks!
 
link to to my 46g bow - that's an AH-Supply retrofit mated to the AGA strip light (2x 18W fixtures removed first, of course). All it took was a drill, bits, dremel, pliers, screwdriver and ~1 hour. The legs were added later - they're made from some metal braces & HDD rails I had laying about. You'll want some sort of legs to keep the bulb from cracking your glass lids (96W PC bulbs get HOT).

PS - Welcome to AC!
 
Without co2 and 4wpg your gonna grow algae but not the plants.
 
Squawkbert said:
link to to my 46g bow - that's an AH-Supply retrofit mated to the AGA strip light (2x 18W fixtures removed first, of course). All it took was a drill, bits, dremel, pliers, screwdriver and ~1 hour. The legs were added later - they're made from some metal braces & HDD rails I had laying about. You'll want some sort of legs to keep the bulb from cracking your glass lids (96W PC bulbs get HOT).

PS - Welcome to AC!
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Very nice tank! Looks and sounds like the light was pretty simple. Are you running 1 96 watt or 2?

And thanks for the welcome. I joined over 2 years ago and never posted. I was moving and was going to convert to a planted aquarium then. Never got around to setting the aquarium up...
 
fishguy74 said:
Yeah that's what I was thinking. What would be safe as far as watts per gallon without co2?
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Here's a link to a 36" Coralife that runs at 96w (I'll be buying it for a 40g I'm setting up.). On your 46, that will give you 2.08wpg, just barely medium. If you stick to low/medium light plants, you can probably get away with no CO2. If the plants are rooted, you might want to consider adding laterite or some other plant-friendly substrate to the gravel.

I was about to write that my only concern would be a drop of of light in the bow portion, but you can leave that open as swimming space or put some low-light plants there. BTW, there's a very handy plant-finder here.:idea:
 
fishguy74 said:
Very nice tank! Looks and sounds like the light was pretty simple. Are you running 1 96 watt or 2?
Click to expand...

Thanks... Just 1x96W (6700K, about to be replaced w/ an 8800K I'm not too sure about).
 
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