Lighting for 135 gallon planted.

C

csunracer

AC Members
Mar 14, 2005
8
0
0
Hey guys, just wanted an opinion on what type of lighting I should be using for a planted 135. Here is what I currently have:

135 glass
15" tall canopy (originally used this for a reef tank with three 250W mh bulbs)
two emperor 400 filters
RENA xp3
Red sea turbo c02 system X 2

It's currently lit by four 48" flourescent bulbs which obviously isn't going to cut it as far as a decent planted tank is concerned. I was thinking about doing two 175w halides with 10K bulbs. What's your take on this?
 
that would work, but i would personally go with a lower k rating. more in the 6,000-7,000 which is a daylight spectrum, whereas 10,000k is much brighter white and heading more into the blues.
 
metal halides are awesome for growing plants, better than PC and flourescents. You'll be in the high light range so plan accordingly. Regarding the K rating, I find the 10,000k a very sterile white color (think hospital white). If you like that then go for it. If you want something a little warmer looking, drop down to the 6,700k range.
 
The reason why I'm considering going with 10k bulbs is that they are the lowest kelvin rating that comes with the kits i've been looking at. Right now i'm leaning towards getting an icecap retrofit kit. Icecap ballasts run extremely cool and are energy efficient and i've had nothing but good luck with them in the past. I used to run three 250w HQI pendants off of three ice cap ballasts over my reef tank.

PC/VHO/T5 are out of the question with this tank because I have such a tall canopy. I wouldn't get get good light penetration given that setup. I've really decided on halides, but was just curious if two 175 watters would be enough over a 6' long tank.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom