Lighting

Rob1eddy

AC Members
Sep 4, 2005
33
0
0
South Carolina
I have ordered a 70 gallon and a 150 gallon tank. I had lots of tanks and fish in a previous life in the 70s. I see that things have really changed. I'm going freshwater with an Amazon theme in the 150 and maybe live bearers in the 70. I want both tanks as natural as possible. What do I need in lighting? I sort of understand the 3 watts per gallon but don't understand the other lighting terminologies. Help.

Rob
 
Well I have read somewhere that for live plants you need about 10 watts per gallon. Try for a "Natural spectrum" bulb. If you don't go with live plants (I would say live plants are rally nice and rewarding) then you don't need that much light, just enough for you to see, lights in a non-planted tank is more for the owners use, well at lest that is what I read.
 
MikeO said:
Well I have read somewhere that for live plants you need about 10 watts per gallon. Try for a "Natural spectrum" bulb. If you don't go with live plants (I would say live plants are rally nice and rewarding) then you don't need that much light, just enough for you to see, lights in a non-planted tank is more for the owners use, well at lest that is what I read.

10 Watts per gallon!? Yikes.....DO NOT go that high..im not sure what will happen but it cant be good. I wouldnt worry too much about any of the other terms...just get a compact florecent aqualight..that will give you around 3 watts per gallon...just do a google search and youll come up with a bunch..the only other thing that really matter is spectrum and the ones that are sold are usually 6500K....

check this link out:
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=11348&N=2004+113030

Also I assume you want plants? If you dont..then do not worry about lighting at all and just get something standrad. If you do want plants however, Keep in mind youll want to inject C02 and dont forget about the ferts.....Also I highly reccomend using something in the substarte like Laterite or Flourite....look them up for more info.
 
Here are the terminology you'll need in terms of lighting:

CF or PC basically stands for Power Compact Fluorescent lighting. These are the tubes that are doubled up or in the swirley shape. They offer much more intense lighting than regular fluorescents and are highly recommended for live plants.

NO fluorescent are Normal Output tubes which comes stock in most light setup. The wattage per gallon rule uses NO fluorescent as the standard for their measurement, so if you have PC, you're better off. Within NO lights, you have the T5, T8, T10, and T12 tubes. The lower the denominator, the more efficient the tube, so a T5 is more energy efficient than a T12, saving you money on your electricity bill in the long run.

Kelvin rating basically shows you the color output of a tube, the lower it is the more yellowish, the higher the whiter and bluer. This is where all the fancy lingo like "full spectrum" and "plant-gro" tubes come into play. full spectrum lighting offers a much more whitish light at 5,000k or higher. Plant-Gro lights are at the lower end but with a noticeable pinkish or purplish tint. It isn't really important unless you go very high into the blue actinic tubes, which aren't suitable for freshwater planted tanks alone. Just buy what looks nice to you.

10wpg probably won't do anything to the plants but significantly accelerate their growth, which can also significantly accelerate algae growth as well. At that high a wattage, the plants will burn through the available nutrients in the water very quickly and you'll have to do frequent fertilization.
 
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