Lighting Questions (40 G Breeder)

Z

zmazza

nano r33f 4 u
Feb 21, 2006
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I'm looking to get at least 2 watts per gallon, or heck, at LEAST 1.5 if it's even possible. I bought a single tube black striplight at 36" from petsolutions.com. If I'm not mistaken, it says RATED AT 25w on the back of the ballast. I'm not sure if thats for the current bulb in the ballast, the maximum watt bulb that it can handle or what. I want to at least get 1 to 1.5 watts per gallon so that I can have some low light plants. Can I put a stronger bulb in the ballast? Or would I have to worry about the ballast not being able to power the bulb? Do I just need to buy a new fixture? I found a power compact fixture for 80 dollars that has 1 96 watt bulb and a lunar light.

OFF TOPIC -

How much wpg does the Eclipse III hood give?

Thanks for the help!
 
John N. said:
The ballast sounds like it only drives up to 25watts. So you'll need another fixture.

Checkout ahsupply.com for 1x55 watt kit or 2x55 watt kit.

Not sure about the eclipse hood, but likely not enough light.

-John N.
Click to expand...

I have a custom cut acrylic cover for my aquarium. Do I need to worry about the light warping the cover? Is there a way to raise it up off the tank? Would that be beneficial?

Definitely not a bad deal on the ahsupply.com website. Question though... it looks like I am going to have to have a canopy, right? Something to screw the bulb holders into? I think I am going to go with the 2 55 bulb kit. That way I will have almost 3 watts per gallon. That would be perfect. I'm afraid of it melting the acrylic though, but I guess if I made a canopy for it, it wouldn't be so bad. Stupid question.. if i left the back of the canopy open, instead of closing it off, would it set the wood on fire? or melt my AC70?

I've never worked with ballasts or custom lighting, so you'll have to forgive the stupid questions. :huh:
 
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well if you built your own canopy hood..there wouldn't be a need for the acrylic cover. But if you wanted to use the cover, it might warp depending how high you make your canopy and how high you mount the lights.

Leaving the back panel probably won't set your wood on fire or melt your AC.

If you go with 3.0 wpg, remember you'll need CO2 and ferts (gregwatson.com).

-John N.
 
I definitely want to get some CO2.. they have a kit at my local fish store that uses tubes of liquid CO2... it comes with a kit and activator thats only 26 dollars, and the refill is only 5 for a 3 month supply. You use 1 tube per 30 gallons, so I figure 1 per 40 will be fine.

So if I build the canopy.... I can get rid of the acrylic cover? Would I need to worry about excessive evaporation or heat? Is there a good way to build a hinged canopy? I want to do this right and DEFINITELY don't want it to be too heavy or a fire risk.
 
When ordering the ah kit, they include a free DIY Canopy instructions, that will tell you how to build a basic canopy. The hinges can be added easily. The heat produced isn't going to catch wood on fire unless your extremely unlucky.

You can be rid of your acrylic cover once you have a canopy. Minimize splashing by topping off the water. Slight splashing has never created a problem for me.

For the CO2, I'm not sure what viles your talking about. But I'm guessing its something like this...http://bigalsonline.com/catalog/product.xml?product_id=35277;category_id=2873

That will do, or you can make your own CO2 using a glass diffuser or a hagen ladder. I'm curretly selling both in the classified section if your interested. Here's a link for the glass one, and inside is the a DIY CO2 GUIDE for less that $5/month. http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=69797

And here's one for the Hagen Ladder.
http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=69895

You'll need at least two bottles of DIY CO2 to get good levels.

-John N.
 
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John N. said:
When ordering the ah kit, they include a free DIY Canopy instructions, that will tell you how to build a basic canopy. The hinges can be added easily. The heat produced isn't going to catch wood on fire unless your extremely unlucky.

You can be rid of your acrylic cover once you have a canopy. Minimize splashing by topping off the water. Slight splashing has never created a problem for me.

-John N.
Click to expand...

Seems like ah supply is a really great place to purchase lighting. Do you think I would be well off with the 2x55 kit? Do you think it would produce too much heat? Do you think it would grow plants well? I want to grow quite a few different species, none in particular, just a wide variety.

I've got a brother in law that is a contractor, so I'll give the plans to him and have him help me build a canopy.

So you don't think I'll have to worry about heat from the 2x55 kit?
 
You can grow pretty much everything with 2x55 watt kit. ahsupply is great because of the reflectors, which get more usable light into the tank then anything else.

You won't have a heating issues if you install the apprioate vents like this one in this thread (click on the attached image in the thread):
http://aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/showthread.php?t=5527&highlight=ahsupply

Here's some more possible answers to your questions, includes experiences with 2x55w and pics of mounting it.
http://aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/showthread.php?t=8009&highlight=ahsupply+2x55

-John N.
 
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