too Much Light? Please help

J

jinchi

AC Members
Jul 11, 2009
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good morning all,

I have the opportunity to pickup THIS light or a good price (80 bucks)

I am thinking, although a good price, it may too much or what I want it to do.

I have a 55 gallon that I would like to plant low-tech, low lite, anacris, anubias, java ferns, etc..... I have flourite and black sand substrate 2 inches and fancy goldfish (x3).

At the moment, no CO2 (DIY is not out of the question) and no ferts. If this is too much light, can i swap out bulbs that will work?

Thanks, J
 
I would grab that light at that price just for any future projects.

But I would not recommend using that much light for some of the plants you mentioned. Very big waste of money on your energy bill.

Anacharis is touchy - some people have it thrive in low light, others have it die off. I'd watch that one.

For the needs of these plants, you wouldn't need much more than one of these:

http://www.bigalsonline.com/BigAlsU...7/cl0/coralifefwt5aqualightdoublestriplight48

These give out great light at a much lower wattage. I also like them because they're so sleek.
 
If you run all 4 bulbs, you will likely need co2.
I am fairly sure that this light has 2 separately controlled banks of 2 bulbs each.

I would definitely purchase that light at that price.
 
Even with just 2 lights on you will need CO2 if not you will get algae like bba bga so on and so on if you run all 4 you will get algae city and green water. If your not going to get co2 don't waste your cash on that light get some t8 or t5.
 
jinchi said:
I have the opportunity to pickup THIS light or a good price (80 bucks)
I am thinking, although a good price, it may too much or what I want it to do.
Click to expand...
ji:

Purchase it.

As previously noted you can run only one bank of lights if two banks proves to be too much light.


jinchi said:
If this is too much light, can i swap out bulbs that will work?
Click to expand...
Swapping bulbs to decrease power will not work.

You can swap out the actinic bulbs for a 6700K bulb and a 7000K bulb which will improve your plants' health.

TR
 
That's a killer deal for that setup. If you run 2 of the lights you'd be looking at 130w, which is slightly over 1wpg which should be just about perfect for the plants you're talking about. At that level, you shouldn't need CO2 or ferts. You could also probably grow crypts and vals pretty well.

I don't know how well fancy goldfish take to planted tanks though. I've heard horror stories of goldies and plants...
 
Do any of you guys even have a planted tank? 130w of pc light over a 55g is a lot of light and you WILL NEED CO2 and fert's its over 2.3wpg. Trust me I tryed it when I first started planted all I got was bba dust spot so on and so of algae. If you really want algae buy the light your just seeing the price and saying that a sweet deal but its not worth the trouble.
 
I got that light for free and am running it on my 55 gal. with eco complete and CO2 DIY. But i can't get any plant growth still... I wonder if it has something to do with the bulb temp im using..2 10k and 2 blue acitic.
 
FishManMoe said:
I got that light for free and am running it on my 55 gal. with eco complete and CO2 DIY. But i can't get any plant growth still... I wonder if it has something to do with the bulb temp im using..2 10k and 2 blue acitic.
Click to expand...
The 2 blue acitic do nothing for your plants. First what kind of plants do you have a lot of plants need a lot of light and co2 to grow some just need a little bit of light.
 
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