# 240g lighting



## Bryeman (Aug 24, 2009)

I have a 240g 8'x2'x2' acrylic aquarium that I'm seriously thinking about turning into a planted tank. I have a fair amount of experience in the planted world as I've had several planted tanks before including my 125g. The question I have is does anyone have experience with the lighting on these? I'm looking for something close to at least moderate lighting, and I plan on using ferts, pressurized CO2, etc. The height difference is on this 240 compared to my 125 is fairly substantial. I do have an AquaticLife 8x39w T5HO system available. My dislike with this is it would only be 6' long. It does have 3" legs though, so it would be resting about 5" above the actual water line and roughly 25-27" above the substrate (give or take). Each end would also not get as much light, but would get some (might look odd though). Would I be better off with LED? I have two Marineland LED 3' fixtures now on top of it for the Cichlids, and although it looks great for that, there's a lot of dead areas since the fixtures are skinny and that type of lighting seems more direct.


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## AaronT (Apr 26, 2004)

Do you have a way to measure PAR with the Aquatic Life fixture? You could likely get away with having it higher off of the water if you were willing to hang the fixture rather than use the legs. This would give you better light spread and likely still be good lighting for most plants.

For instance, I have a 4 x 39 watt ATI Sunpower fixture over my 36 x 18 x 18 tank and with all the bulbs on and 12" above the top of the tank I still get 140 PAR at the substrate.


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## Octavusprime (Sep 18, 2011)

I use (2) quad 48 inch T5s. Way too much light so I only run half of the output.

If you had (2) twin bulb 48 inch T5s you would have plenty of light.

My only issue is I wish the lighting was spread out for more even light distribution. I've been thinking about taking my quads apart and building a DIY fixture. In the meantime I move the lights every few days to get proper lighting on all areas.


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## niko (Jan 28, 2004)

You can't beat Giesemann Midday T5HO bulbs for light spectrum, intensity, and price. It is not all in the "T5HO" designation, and it is not in the Kelvins. Hope you understand that.

You don't have to place the fixture that you have on the funky little legs. Rest it on top of the tank rim if you can. This will both make the fixture look almost invisible because it will be so low profile and will definitely get you more punch. The 24" depth is not a big deal.

320 watts of T5HO are plenty. If you use the bulbs that I mentioned.

LEDs are cool and all but first they do not last as long as everybody believes and second to get the punch that 320 watts of T5HO give you you will spend a fortune.

Also peruse the PAR measurments thread on the DFW sub forum here.


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## Bryeman (Aug 24, 2009)

niko said:


> You can't beat Giesemann Midday T5HO bulbs for light spectrum, intensity, and price. It is not all in the "T5HO" designation, and it is not in the Kelvins. Hope you understand that.
> 
> You don't have to place the fixture that you have on the funky little legs. Rest it on top of the tank rim if you can. This will both make the fixture look almost invisible because it will be so low profile and will definitely get you more punch. The 24" depth is not a big deal.
> 
> ...


I'm a firm believer in the Giesemann and use them already. Would you suggest all 8 bulbs of the Midday or should I get 4 of the bulbs as 10k or something like that? I could remove the legs, but the problem with that is I have 4 glass covers on the top of the tank, so the fixture would be tilted by 1/4" or something like that. Not a huge deal, but would have to test that. I was thinking having the legs on would give the fixture 3" more inches to help enable the light to "spread out" to the ends as well since the fixture is only 6' long and the tank is 8'. Do you think I'd want to run all 8 bulbs or maybe 4 for 3 hours, 8 for 4 hours in the middle, and then 4 for the last 3 hours? Just curious if all 8 may be a bit over kill or not. Thanks!


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## AaronT (Apr 26, 2004)

Bryeman said:


> I'm a firm believer in the Giesemann and use them already. Would you suggest all 8 bulbs of the Midday or should I get 4 of the bulbs as 10k or something like that? I could remove the legs, but the problem with that is I have 4 glass covers on the top of the tank, so the fixture would be tilted by 1/4" or something like that. Not a huge deal, but would have to test that. I was thinking having the legs on would give the fixture 3" more inches to help enable the light to "spread out" to the ends as well since the fixture is only 6' long and the tank is 8'. Do you think I'd want to run all 8 bulbs or maybe 4 for 3 hours, 8 for 4 hours in the middle, and then 4 for the last 3 hours? Just curious if all 8 may be a bit over kill or not. Thanks!


If you mix and match use the AquaFlora instead of a 10k bulb. 50/50 is a nice color IMO and brings out reds really nicely. If you don't plan to have many reds, all middays looks really nice too.


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## Bryeman (Aug 24, 2009)

Anyone have any thoughts about whether running all 8 bulbs (8x39w of T5HO) is going to be too much?


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## Octavusprime (Sep 18, 2011)

That is alot of light. It can be done but you need high co2 and plenty of ferts.


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## Bryeman (Aug 24, 2009)

Octavusprime said:


> That is alot of light. It can be done but you need high co2 and plenty of ferts.


I just did a test run and you are correct. I'll start out slow and see how plants do when I'm ready to start. After the initial break in period I'll probably run 4 bulbs on the front and back end for hours each and then have the 8 bulb midday thing going on for 2 hours or something like that. Fixture is only 6' long, so the ends of the 8' tank will be perfect for low light plants I think. I could get two 4' fixtures, but this aquatic life fixture wasn't cheap when I got it a couple of years ago and hate to see it go to waste.


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