# enough light? and how high ?



## Gir (Jul 12, 2005)

K I have a couple questions. I am building my own hood for my 55 gallon tank. I need to know how high to make it from the surface of the water for good light coverage, I can do whatever since its custom. Second question is Im looking at AHsupply for their 2x55 watt kit. at 110 watts Ill be right at 2 WPG, is this enough for a beginner to get his plants started and healty ? Will I need CO2 injection if so will the homebrew stuff be enough or full bottle support ?
Thanks in advance


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## trenac (Jul 16, 2004)

2WPG in a 55G tank will be enough for low light plants.

I would recommend C02 injection... You can go with 2 DIY bottles or a pressurized system, what ever one your budgit allows.

I don't know anything about making your own hood but here is some sites that should help... http://www.plantgeek.net/article_viewer.php?id=11
http://www.plantedtank.net/diyhood.html


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## gnatster (Mar 6, 2004)

Dennis has a thread in the DIY area called Ask Dennis where he answers you woodworking questions. As a professional cabinet maker he is uniquely qualified and offers great advice and hints to help.


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## Gir (Jul 12, 2005)

I know how to make the hood, just not sure how high off the water to put it as far as whats best for the plants with the light and all.
I wouldnt mi nd doing 2 DIY co2 for a while before I go for the full setup. How do I know how much Co2 to dose depending on lighting ? (maybe I will get 3 55W setup)


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## MatPat (Mar 22, 2004)

When I made hoods for my 55g tanks, the inside depth of the hoods is 3.75". This puts the bottom of my lamps at about 2" from the top of the tank. I am using simple, white shoplight reflectors and (four) 2x ODNO lamps on these two tanks. The light is more than enough.

The hood I made for my 30g tank is the same depth but I do not have any reflectors in this tank, just semi-gloss white paint. I am using (two) 2x ODNO lamps on this tank (~90 watts). The lamps are still 2" from the top of the tank and I have been able to grow Tonina species, Rotala macrandra, Pogostemon stelatus and Ludwigia sp. 'Pantanal' in this tank. 

All three of these tanks are using Over Driven Normal Output lamps and not CF lamps. A 2x55w kit from AH supply would be a good place to start. 

Since you are DIY'ing a hood, you may want to do some DIY lighting also. You could do a search for ODNO lighting and overdrive some regular output lamps or just run four 32w lamps over your tank. Four 32 watt lamps will completely cover the tank from front to back and side to side. A 2x55w kit will only cover the back or the front and will not give you as even coverage. 

I found a 2-pack of Philips 6500k, 90+CRI lamps at Home Depot for $8. You could put 4 of these lamps over you 55g and wire them to one ballast ($20-$30) and have a nice lighting system for less than the cost of a single 55w kit and lamp from AH supply. 

Four 32 watt lamps on a 55g would be more than enough to grow most any plant! You could always upgrade to ODNO (just add another ballast and re-wire) or the 2x55 AH Supply kit if it doesn't somehow meet your needs


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## Gir (Jul 12, 2005)

Thanks for your reply. I didnt think it was safe to put the ballasts that close to the water. Do you do a nything to waterproof them at all ?
The 4 32 watt bulbs sounds pretty good, how long are they ? that wo uld get me around 2.5 watts per gallon. I was thinking of possibly going for 3x55 w kit to get closer to 3 watts per gallon so Im not as limited in what I can grow. Ill have to hit up home depot. Thanks for the suggestions


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## MatPat (Mar 22, 2004)

I placed the ballasts on the outside rear of the hood. That keeps them away from the water and keeps heat buildup out of the hood. 

The hood is also hinged midway so that you can raise the whole front up and 
rest it on the back half in order to feed or do tank maintenance. The lamps are 47 3/16" long. Don't forget to figure in the width of the sockets when determining the total length of your hood. 

The top of my 55g tanks were 48 1/4" long so I made the hoods inside length 48 1/2' to allow a 1/8'' gap on each side. The hood rests on cleats that run the length of the front and sides of the hood. It also has some decorative trim that covers the plastic trim on the tank. 

I can probably post some pics of it if you are interested...


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## Gir (Jul 12, 2005)

yeah some pics would be great. Are you sure they are 32w I always read that the 48" bulbs were 40w but I could be wrong


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## MatPat (Mar 22, 2004)

I will post the pics later this afternoon or this evening. 

The lamps are T-8 lamps which are rated for 32w. The larger T-12 lamps are rated for 40w. The T-8's put out more light due to their smaller size even though they consume less wattage. These are definately the lamps you would want to use in case you decide to overdrive them in the future. Also, make sure you purchase electronic ballasts and not magnetic ones.


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## Gir (Jul 12, 2005)

Ok, I definately need a pic now, I didnt know these types of hoods needed ballasts, I thought they just had a cord coming out of them 

and should I buy the ballast from home depot, or a different source ?


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## MatPat (Mar 22, 2004)

Here are the pics I promised. I was unable to get a good pic of the front of the hood opening but you can get the idea of how it works with the back open. 

The hood cleats are a bit hard to see since they are black...they are simply 3/4" square pine that is screwed to the front and sides of the hood so that it can rest on the lip of the tank.


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## Gir (Jul 12, 2005)

Thanks for the pics, tank looks great btw 
I bought some t-8's from home depot that look a lot like that but I think they must be different cause the ballasts are internal (I cant see them). 
Did you do anything to waterproof your bulbs or connections since your so close to the water line ?


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## MatPat (Mar 22, 2004)

Did you buy a complete fixture for your tank? That is what I did but I took the units apart and only used the reflector. I then purchased ELECTRONIC ballasts to replace the magnetic ballasts that came with the fixture and mounted the ELECTRONIC ballasts on the back of the canopy to keep heat and water away from them. The ballasts are actually mounted on the back of the tank. You can see them in pic #4.

I didn't do anything special to waterproof the connections. I did staple the wires to the hood to keep them from dangling near the water. I figure if the endcaps go bad in a year or two, I will just replace them and be good for a couple of more years  Endcaps are very cheap, especially at Lowes/Home Depot. 

The fixtures I bought didn't come with lights either. I purchased some Philips lights in the 6500K spectrum for about $8 a pair at Home Depot.

If you got electronic ballasts with your lights you should be set. The rear mounted ballasts also give the back of the hood some weight when you open the front. Keeps it from tipping that way


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## Gir (Jul 12, 2005)

Sweet. I was planning on taking the lights apart and putting the ballasts in a safer spot. It didnt say on the box wether they were electronic or magnetic, what is the advantage of going electronic ? Besides separating them, I am planning on putting vaseline on the end connections (better safe than sorry). 
I also got the 6500K bulbs from home depot, they arent like the ones you get at the aquarium stores, Im interested in seeing how they look with plants.


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## MatPat (Mar 22, 2004)

Electronic ballasts consume less energy than magnetic ballasts and don't have that annoying humm. 32 watt T-8 lamps have more lumen output than the larger 40 watt T-12 lamps making them brighter.

If you bought a T-8 fixture, I would guess they are electronic ballasts. Did you get a single 4 bulb fixture or two 2 bulb fixtures?

Electronic ballasts also allow you to "overdrive" the lights and get more output from them. A search on ODNO will explain this a bit better. The lights on my tank are "overdriven". 

If you choose to "overdrive" your lights in the future do a lot of reading and make sure you are comfortable with working around electricity. 

Depending on your substrate color they should be fine. I have tried 6500K with black substrate and didn't like the color. It seemed to green to me. The mix of Flourite, Profile, and Florabase in my 55g tanks looks nice with those bulbs.


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## Gir (Jul 12, 2005)

Yeah I have black substrate in there now and was going to mx it with flourite. and it does look green ! I bought 2 different 2 bulb setups that will be running shortly. I dont know if I want to switch the substrate out completely because of the lighting or not. Ive read about overdriving the lights but prolly will stick with the basic setup for now, have to learn how to do my own co2


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## MatPat (Mar 22, 2004)

Gir said:


> Ive read about overdriving the lights but prolly will stick with the basic setup for now, have to learn how to do my own co2


That is probably your best bet   I started with below 2wpg and didn't have any algae problems until for some crazy reason, I decided to increase my lighting.

The two lights will allow you to control them independently also. I would start off with the rear lght running for 10-12 hours a day and the front running only for 4-6 hours or so. Each week you can increase the front lights by a couple of hours if needed. This should allow the plants to acclimate to the new lights and hopefully keep algae away while you figure out how you want to fertilize and get used to DIY CO2.

If you do increase the light in the future, remember you will need to increase your ferts and CO2 also. That problem hit me hard when I first upped my lighting


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## Gir (Jul 12, 2005)

Good to know. Im feeling a little overwhelmed at this point. Not sure which plants to buy yet, still looking for a piece of wood for the tank. But hopefully Ill be able to get the co2 and ferts right. Still looking for good articles on how to get started on both of those. I know I need some more tests for the water, but I dont know what the results mean yet.


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## MatPat (Mar 22, 2004)

I would suggest you get as many fast growers as possible to start out with. Water Sprite, most of the Hygrophila species, Bacopa caroliniana, Didiplis Diandra, etc. Check out the PlantFinder. you can select plants by type...stem plants would be the fastest growing.

As far as good articles, Chuck Gadd's site, especially the articles part of his site is worth reading. Here is the link:

http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/articles.htm

He covers almost everything the beginer need to know when setting up a tank. There is even a downloadable calculator to get you started in adding fertilizers.

It takes a while to learn, but keep on reading and DOING! With your lght level, there is some room for error that is not present when folks start with a 4 watt per gallon tank. That is one of the good parts of starting off with lower light levels. Plenty of time to learn while you watch the plants grow. Once you gain some confidence and knowledge you can increase the lighting, if you really need to


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## Gir (Jul 12, 2005)

Wow that looks like a great resource to start me readin. Thanks 
As soon as Ihave everything setup and decide on plants Ill post some pics


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