Does it matter where I place my lighting?

[el wadd]

I have 108w in 2 48" T-5's They run the length of the back of my 60" tank. My question to you is this...

If I kick those up to 170w. Can I just get like a 23" compact florescent fixture and hang it on one side of my canopy? I have a top opening canopy and would like to have one access to the tank unobstructed.

Does the light placement above a tank have anything to do with WPG? I figured I'd just kinda plant more to one side of the tank worst case...

 

[Squawkbert]

It matters somewhat. Go by what your eyes tell you with respect to placement. It may be best to stick the odd-ball fixture in the middle and have the T5s start at opposite ends, going toward the middle.

 

[Nolapete]

The area under the light is going to receive the most benefit from it obviously, but about half to 2/3 of the tank will receive some benefit as well. You might notice plants growing towards that end of the tank because of the increased light.

 

[el wadd]

The area under the light is going to receive the most benefit from it obviously, but about half to 2/3 of the tank will receive some benefit as well. You might notice plants growing towards that end of the tank because of the increased light.

Ideally, I would just run another 48" in the front half to match the back. My canopy is old world style, heavy/solid, and definetly not something I would want to have to take off all the way everytime I have to get into the tank. It does, however, have 2 access panels that measure roughly the size of the lighting units I was inquiring about. I can fit a fixture on each flap, but am trying to get my WPG up without doing the same to my pocket.

I figure I could plant heavy towards the higher lighting, and have it kinda taper off into the lower lighted section....at least untill I get the scratch up to buy another fixture to accompany it, of course.

I'm just trying to get up to the 2WPG that seems to be required to have healty happy plants.

 

[Mgamer20o0]

I figure I could plant heavy towards the higher lighting, and have it kinda taper off into the lower lighted section....at least untill I get the scratch up to buy another fixture to accompany it, of course.

thats kinda what i did. i had t8 lighting in my 120 gal. 6 bulbs over the tank. in the middle i had the higher light plants and on the ends i had the lower light plants. later on i added 2x55w where the extra space was.

 

[el wadd]

and yours worked out fine?

 

[Mgamer20o0]

i would say so. i did later on get went with lights from ahsupply but at the time thats all i could get.

 

[greyhoundfan]

EW, I don't have much to add but you avatar pic sure caught my eye. What type of discus is it? Blue Knight? Angel Diamond? It's a beaut..something like that would look great in a planted tank.

I'm setting up a semi planted tank for my Blueknights. Tank will be bare bottomed. I'll be attaching a bunch of anubias and narrow leaf java fern to a pc of driftwood.

 

[el wadd]

thats some growth.

It's a blue knight. I like the hi-fin strains.

 

[Mgamer20o0]

that was 2-3 weeks