what are my lighting options?

C

canufeelme

AC Members
Apr 3, 2006
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I have the walmart 55g kit. came with the tank, lights, heater, and other little stuff. Its pretty cool. Its my first tank so i didnt want to shell out to much cash and then not enjoy this hobby. okay well im hooked now. i put some plants in and i have been reading that i should have better lighting for them. i dont know what to do. the lights are one single 15w bulb on each side. the bulbs are im guessing considered 18" as the real bulb length is 17 if you dont count the pins. the housing is 23" long. from what ive read i need 165wpg..im far from that! i dont want to spend a ton of money as im tryin to save up for a ring....if ya know what i mean.

any help would be awesome.

thanks,

Nick
 
By bulb do you mean flourescent strip bulbs or regular incandescent bulbs? If you are using regular incandescent bulbs then an easy solution to get better lighting would be just to replace them with compact flourescent screw in light bulbs. (I recommend Phillips daylight marathon, can be bought at home depot). If you mean that it has flourescent strip lights then you may need to upgrade the whole lighting fixture. BUT FIRST lets look at what type of plants you are keeping.

Some plants do not require much lighting at all ie. java fern, java moss, hornwort and some others.

By the sounds of it though you have flourescent strip lighting. I don't know where you read 165wpg but that would be OVERKILL if not impossible. Anyway those wpg are not a real good measure of how much lighting you require because watts is just how much power the light consumes, it is not directly correlated to output.

If you want to upgrade your lighting consider how much you would like to spend. Coralife freshwater normal flourescent (t5 bulbs) strips are fairly inexpensive and have good output.


Here are some options for you
http://www.bigalsonline.com/catalog/category.xml?pcid1=1843;category_id=1875

http://www.bigalsonline.com/catalog...16;page=2;sort=;pcid1=1843;pcid2=;breadcrumb=

You may want to get a different length depending on how you want to set it up above your tank.
 
sorry i ment a total 0f 165watts, not 165wpg. haha yea thats kind of a lot. yes i have strips not the screw in bulbs. im not sure what type of plants i bought.....i forgot. i need to write their names down as i buy things.

two of the three plants have roots and then the other was just a stem. he said i can let it float on the top or stick it in the gravel. it was really thin with tiny leaves that go up it. the other has fat short leaves and the last one has longer skiny leaves.
 
Here's what I did with my 55 gal...

Yes, I bought the same setup from Wally-Mart.

Found a 4 x 55W CF fixture on ebay, Including shipping, it cost me $85
Petsmart purchase: 2 x 24" glass tops @ ~$10 ea.
I took one of the cheesy fixtures that came with the tank and use the extra 15 Watts over my 25 Gal to give that tank 45 Watts.

With the CF fixture, 2 of the 4 bulbs are actinic so I simply don't use that bank of lights right now, still gives a solid 2WPG and my plants love it. Yes, I'll be getting 2 more regular CF's in a few weeks when money allows.

the current 2 x 55W lighting is letting Cabomba grow like crazy, also Anachairis, Mermaid, & Red Ludwegia going crazy too!

Just sharing what I'm doing with my 55 Gal

let me know by PM if you're interested in the dealer that I bought my CF Fixture from.


Good Luck!

-TF
 
If you don't want to spend a lot of money, You could just DIY.

TetraFreak said:
Yes, I bought the same setup from Wally-Mart.

Found a 4 x 55W CF fixture on ebay, Including shipping, it cost me $85
Petsmart purchase: 2 x 24" glass tops @ ~$10 ea.
Click to expand...

You could skip the CF for now, and just buy a 4 foot shop light (about $10.00)
Get some of the GE 6500k bulbs. (about $10.00)
Skip the actual glass top made for aquariums and get a hardware store to cut you some plate glass. Leave a few inches at the back so you can feed the fish. (about $5-$6)
It may not be the nicest tank to look at, but you've more than doubled your watts for $25.00.
 
i have an air pump running 4 bubble stones in the tank. should those only be ran at night only? i got them and the plants at the same time and have been running the air pump all the time (few days now). i thought that would be good for the tank but i think i read that the air pump should be on at night. i could be wrong. thanks for the help
 
I have the same walmart set-up. I ordered a retrofit from aquarium hobbyist supply (AHS) and set up 2 WPG in the existing hoods. My hubby set it up in about 45 minutes. It's a little over $100 and works great! Website is ahsupply.com

jackie
 
canufeelme said:
i have an air pump running 4 bubble stones in the tank. should those only be ran at night only? i got them and the plants at the same time and have been running the air pump all the time (few days now). i thought that would be good for the tank but i think i read that the air pump should be on at night. i could be wrong. thanks for the help
Click to expand...

I personally wouldn't run it because you'll be driving away a lot of Co2 thats beneficial to plant growth.
 
Onikun said:
I personally wouldn't run it because you'll be driving away a lot of Co2 thats beneficial to plant growth.
Click to expand...

wouldnt run it at all? i had no idea it would be bad for the plants.
 
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