What are my options with lighting

Dave Noel

Dave Noel

AC Members
Oct 29, 2007
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I have a 55g long and the lights are the flourescent tubes that came with it. They are F15t8's which are 15 watts each, there are two of these in the hood, that would make it less than 1 watt per gallon. I was wondering why my plants didn't take off when I hooked up DIY CO2, geez.

Right now I have planted- Java Fern, Dwarf Lilli and a few long plants similar to Crypts (can't remember the names)

So now I am wondering what tube to get to make this tank 2-3 watts per Gallon or is there one made?

Any help greatly appreciated.
Thanks
 
there's rill nothing you can do to increase you current light fixture, your best bet is probably to get a new light fixture for the tank really. i would suggest ether a retrofit kit if you already have a hood for the tank. www.ahsupply.com is a good site for this. or a cheap T5 fixture from Fish Need It.
 
Diddo on www.AHsupply.com they have some awesome retrofit kits. T5's are good to go with but some people stay with Compact Fluorescents for low light tanks. I would imagine for a 55gal. you would have to have a pretty big setup of DIY CO2. I think usually those are for the little tanks but I'm sure it would still work. Good luck with your tank!

--Matt
 
3 for AHSupply. A 2X55 would work nicely, and their kits will fit right into your existing T8 Housings.
Furthermore, if you have a hood. The T8's can be mounted toward the front of the tank to give you that little bit of extra for foreground stuff and helps reduce shadowing.
 
Thanks for the response guys. I will have to check out those sites that were mention in the previous threads for the retro. Using the existing hood really appeals to me so off the check out ahsupply. I also would like to check out the home depot suggestion, if that looks ok I may go for that.

As far as the DIY CO2, I only have one 2 liter bottle going now but I am looking for a T and when I do I will be hooking up the second bottle. I would like to go pressurized but the price is the factor right now. So really I am low light and low on CO2, two good reasons why I never seen too much extra growth.

Thanks
Dave
 
ITHURTZ said:
Go to homedepot and pick up a shop light t-12 40 watts t8 32 watts dual bulb
slap 2 of those on and have 2.3-2.9wpg
Click to expand...
the thing with those is they are made for lighting a large area. the thing with the light from ahsupply or the t5 is they get more light into the tank. 2 of the 55w bright kits from ahsupply would put in a lot more light then 4 t8 bulbs.
 
yeah Stig that is what they are basically saying on their web site too, kinda makes sense really when you look at it.

Hey Nick Mc you talkin to me?
 
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