Lighting questions ...

[twig]

Hey guys,
I recently purchased an 80 gallon waterhome aquarium and had the LFS give me store credit for the crappy LightGLO hood then exchange it with a Jebo hood.

It has 4x 55 watt compact flourecents.

I heard that the compact bulbs actually produce more lighting then the advertised 55 watts because of it's nature. Is that true? If so, how much WPG does my 80 gallon have? 2.7 is just 55 divided by 80 but if it's more efficient ...

Also,
The hood came default with two blue/white lights which I replaced with two white bulbs. The guy also said that plants would benefit from a red/white spectrum so I picked up one of those, too. What's five bucks after spending 900 on everything for a tank right? (with tax and extra stand for my 20 gallon it came to 900)

Do plants benefit from the red spectrum or would it be best to use a white/white bulb?

Also,
With my setup I should be OK to get some high light plants, right? The hood is pretty **** bright! I turn it on and my room turns into hiroshima. It literally blinds me ahahaha...

 

[gagaliya]

1) CF lights are brigher than normal flourecents. But its wattage already took that into consideration. So your WPG is ( 55 x 4 ) / 80 = 2.75

2) 2.75 WPG will pretty much satisfy any plants' light requirement

3) 6700K bulbs are the best for plants, the blue lights are actinic for saltwater tanks so you are right to exchange them. I am not sure what other bulbs you have, but they should all be 6700k for best results.

4) With this setup, you will be going for high tech. That means you need to keep up with the nutrients and co2 level to balance out your 2.75 wpg (considered to be med to high light). Otherwise algae will follow.

5) 900 bucks for 80 gallon is expensive even with light hood

6) what fish / plants are you getting?

 

[twig]

The aquarium was 699 +tax (Canadian) and came with everything (fluval 404, net, food, etc etc) The hood is just the lightbox so I will have to build a top somehow.

I haven't decided on the plants yet but i'm going to get one type of rainbow fish.

I have dry macro nutrients that I got from gregwatson. I've been using PlantGRO for trace and iron but I will have to change that for the 80 gallon (otherwise it will cost a lot to keep that tank well-nourished lol) so i think i'm going to use the recipe provided to mix all the trace and macro stuff myself.

I was hoping with my lighting i'd be able to accomplish a carpetted plant of some sort. I haven't decided what would be best growing all along the bottom. Any suggestions?

I don't know the spectrum ... =(
it's just bulbs that are made by Jebo ... They only say w/w for the white ones and r/w for the red one.

 

[twig]

From what i've read online plants lean towards the red spectrum so maybe having a red spectrum plant is a good thing?

If nothing else, from what I read, it should really bring out the red plants in my aquarium.

Can anyone explain the R/W lights and if there are benefits or not?

 

[gagaliya]

red is lower kelvin. As long as it's around 5000k - 6700k you are ok.

The color of the plant has no relation with the temp range of the bulb. A red plant will photosynthesis just fine under 5k+ or 6.7k

With your lighting glosso is definitly doable provided you inject co2. They are the fastest growing carpet and most popular among high tech tanks.

 

[gagaliya]

here's a quote from ahsupply on bulb

Bulbs with a Color Temperature of 5000K through 6700K are appropriate for freshwater planted aquariums. There is no practical difference regarding plant growth, but there is an appearance difference. Bulbs around 5000K have a warmer daylight appearance similar to early morning light. Bulbs around 6400K or 6700K have an appearance more like daylight in the middle of the afternoon under a clear blue sky.

 

[twig]

well i ment the colour red ... >> not make red plants grow better.

 

[loaches r cool]

1) CF lights are brigher than normal flourecents. But its wattage already took that into consideration. So your WPG is ( 55 x 4 ) / 80 = 2.75

I dont beleive that 100% true. I am fairly certain the wattage rating is how much wattage the bulbs consume from the ballast, so that ballasts and bulbs match. If the bulb was rated as far as light output how would the manufacturers know which ballast to use since the efficiencies of bulbs vary. And I am also fairly certain the WPG rule is based on T12 fluorescent bulbs. There was a chart here a while ago that listed a conversion factor for the WPG rule for all the bulbs, I might be able to dig it up later. But basically the smaller the diameter bulb (T12 = 1.5", T10=1.25", T8=1"...) the more wattage it has for the WPG rule [of thumb].

You can also tell that the wattage isnt the light output by putting a 40W GE plant and aquarium T12 bulb up against a Philips Daylight Deluxe 32W T8 bulb. If the rating was output, then the Philips bulb would be dimmer. Even though the Philips bulb is lower wattage than the GE bulb it appears literaly twice as bright. I have some pictures I can upload, but I am at work now.