Lighting a 600G HELP

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Sicklid111

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Jun 11, 2007
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Ok I have this posted on Monster Fish Keepers but no response. So I'll try here.

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Ok I have an Idea on how to set up the lighting on my 600 for a planted 600! Just thought I'd get some opinions here. Tank Dimensions are 96Lx48Wx30H I only plan on a few types of low maintenance US native plants like Vallisneria gigantea. Since I have such a large tank I know the WPG is out the window, But I was told once that using screw in compact fluorescent bulbs with a bell shaped reflector will work to "spotlight" the areas that you want the plant growth in. I was thinking 5 of these Bulbs staggered over the tank like this:
lightlayout.jpg

And then setting up 3 timers as follows:
Bulb 3 on timer 1
Bulbs 1 and 5 on timer 2
bulbs 2 and 4 on timer 3

Then starting at about 7am bulb 3 comes on, followed at 9am or so bulbs 1 and 5 turn on and finally 1pm bulbs 2 and 4 come on. Then as the day goes on reversing the order begining at around 5-6 pm with the lights going off in reverse order trying to simulate the natural sunrise and sunset. This way I hope to get good plant growth and try to limit algae growth.
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The main reason I was looking into those was an article I found here and also a sticky of this post Here that was from this site. Now on another site I posted the same thing but was hearing a lot about restrike of the watts due to the shape of the bulb. But If what I'm after is Lumens and PAR and uhhh... :wall:

Like I have in my original post I have 600 gallons and no way am I going to try and put 1200 watts over my tank just to grow Vals. And please don't say Plastic plants or I'll blow chunks all over my keyboard and monitor. Has anyone put the SHO screw in CFL to actual test yet or any other Screw in CFL or any other bulb for that matter to test out different theories on what gets plants to grow? I was also going to replace the bell shaped reflector with nice polished ones from AH Supply. Any help will be greatly appreciated!
 
I know screw in cfl are the cheap way out but the bell shape reflectors are really horrible and as you said earlier restrike will decrease the light. You are better off placing the bulbs horizontally. As far as bulbs you can go to homedepot and they sell those huge 12-20" bulbs for somewhat cheaper than online. Tough part is finding one with the right K rating.
Another option is metal halide fixtures. A bit more pricey than the screw in cfl but will give you more efficient light for the plants.
 
Isn't the only thing the restrike decrease is the wattage? I was under the assumption that it would not effect the Lumens. Those bulbs have 6500K and 6700 Lumens giving them about 64 lumens per watt. Which is much higher than what the normal household screw in CFL bulbs are not to mention the K temp is about 1/4 to a 1/3 on most and only a few reaching half of what they need to be for a planted tank. The whole purpose is to save not only Money on the initial cost but also on the electric bill every month. MH are way out of budget.
 
Sicklid111 said:
Isn't the only thing the restrike decrease is the wattage? I was under the assumption that it would not effect the Lumens. Those bulbs have 6500K and 6700 Lumens giving them about 64 lumens per watt. Which is much higher than what the normal household screw in CFL bulbs are not to mention the K temp is about 1/4 to a 1/3 on most and only a few reaching half of what they need to be for a planted tank. The whole purpose is to save not only Money on the initial cost but also on the electric bill every month. MH are way out of budget.
Click to expand...

normal house hold screw in cfl bulbs are 5500K and everything 27w and above comes in 6500K. So basically the different isnt that great. Plants care about the watts that goes to them, lumens as well since thats the whole spectrum of the bulb.
Normally with fluorescent bulbs one would calculate the watt per gallon by doing total watts divided by # of gallons. Well with the screw in cfl bulbs you lose a small % of that wattage due to its shape, and if you use a bad reflector you further decease the % of light that goes to the tank.

Plenty of people use screw in cfl bulbs for growing plants, it works great for them and has for me. Here check my thread on my canopy which had 5 screw in cfl bulbs for growing plants : LINK
(can find more threads on this site with others who done the same method)

Will mention Shop lights again! Cheap and effective.

You can start calculating right now how much your bill will spike with the addition of so and so lights..

Running 500w over a tank for 10hrs a day is 5Killowatt hours x 30day billing cycle will give you 150kwh used. Check the cost of a kwh on your electricity bill (should be around 10-30cents) and times that by the 150kwh.
 
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Thats gonna be a killer planted tank lol.

Agree with the shop lights. You will be able to run 48" T8s front to back...Just concentrate the tubes where you will plant. Considering you have a deep tank it might be difficult to light with CFLs.
 
if you want to talk to someone about lighting a huge planted tank.. find Tom Barr on here and send him a pm.. he's an expert with planted tanks, and especially monster ones.
 
I would personally go with t-5's with individual reflectors or metal halides because of the depth of your tank. Since those are out of the budget I would go with Over driven T8 shoplights instead of the cfl's. This can probably be done cheaper than the cfl's and your tank will be better lit. Its really up to you and your budget though.

James
 
30" deep is a long way for that light to travel..
I'd probably go with some metal halide pendants or maybe Fluorescent flood lights..

thinking about adding 2 of these to my 125..
FloodLightLoa_bitmap_of_weblayout1-475x257.jpg
 
Yeah, CFL's aren't going to be effective lighting on a tank that deep. To have anywhere near a decent planted tank, you'll have to do Power Compacts or Metal Halides.

Yes, the wpg rule doesn't apply, but putting 100 watts over a 600g tank tank that's 30" deep isn't going to grow plants. For a high tech 600g tank, you should shoot for about 430 watts. Low tech, *maybe* half that.

But, you might could use a couple of these babies:

http://www.1000bulbs.com/105-Watt-Compact-Fluorescent/31681/
 
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