# tank lighting help needed



## neilw (Nov 20, 2004)

Hi,

I'm looking to setup another tank and I'm having some trouble with lighting. Basically I have comitted to having a tank made, which is 40"x18"x18" - 100x45x45. I want this to be quite close to the ADA type of tank, so lighting is obviously a concern. I would love to use MH bulbs over the tank but I'm having trouble finding a suitable model, I think I would need 2 150w MH bulbs for this tank, I can find these units but they're incredibly expensive and too long. 

I have seen one light unit by Aqua One, which comprises of a single 150w mh bulb and 2 24w T5 bulbs, would this be suitable? Costs about £250. I think its meant for a 36" tank but I cant see how much difference an extra 4" would make.

My other option is to go for 2 single 150w MH Aqua Medic Ocean Lights, which would cost about £300 all told. Do you think this would be too much light?

Finally I could go for a 40" T5 lighting pendant which comprises of 4x 39w T5s I think, that would be £229. 

Could you guys advise me on the best course of action? I would love to use MH lights but I'm not sure if I actually can now in retrospect. 

Thanks,

Neil


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## owengibson (Apr 21, 2005)

Hey there,

That tank is about 55 gallons ( I think) , so depending on the sp. you want you could go with a MUCH cheaper setup. If you want it top notch then by all means have two MH supplemented with a couple florescents add wavelength and go at it!

I don't personally think you can have TOO much light... I have 39 watts of CF on a 5 gallon tank....8 WPG

If you hang pendants you can always raise them.

HTH
OG


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## Nick (Jan 12, 2005)

Hi Neil,

I'm thinking of using the aqua-medic unit over my next tank (the 90x45x45). I like the MH-T5 combo, which'll work well over that tank dimension I think. As regards using the aqua one, with the 24 W T5s (plus MH), I currently use 24 W T5's over an 80 cm long tank. This gives me areas either end of the tank that are noticeably dimmer, both visually and in terms of the response of the plants-nothing dramatic, but R. rotunifolia isn't developing the kind of red colouration I get right under the lights. So, that extra 20 cm might give you some issues in a 100 cm, but nothing you couldn't cope with by planting less light demanding species. Let me know-I could e-mail you a few shots. In terms of using an all T5 unit, I currently use a 4x24 W Arcadia luminaire. It is excellent, and provides enough light I would say for any of the usual light-demanding species-I have Eusteralis trying to grow out of the tank, and within less than a week, having hacked the original stems to within an inch of the substrate I've got new shoots and the replanted tops have carried on growing like I didn't expect. These T5's have plenty of poke. As for the MH, two 150's over a 100 cm tank sounds a lot, but since I've not used them yet I'm not in a position to comment...

Cheers,
Nick


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## neilw (Nov 20, 2004)

Some shots would be good Nick.

Were you saying using one 150w MH bulb over your three footer or 2? From my POV MH lighting, there is just something about that effect which is marvellous, but cost effectiveness is leading me towards the arcadia 40" luminare (which I could suspend) arcadia done one with special plant T5 type bulbs now, I am waiting to hear back from them as I dont want a pinkish tinge which I fear specific plant bulbs by arcadia are going to have.

The aquascape I plan is going to be using a lot of grass like plants, basically if it looks like grass its going in there so I want lots of C helferi and e tenellus type species, hairgrass etc I'm not really going after red plants I just want it to look like a dense overgrown thicket. So I figure I many be ok without a massive amount of light but its a tricky one.


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