# Ligthing in Natural



## bienfernando (Aug 11, 2005)

Greetings to the members of this forum.

My name is Fernando Muñoz, I`m from Argentina and this is my first post in the forum.
Please excuse my ingles, but I would like to do some questions to Mrs. Walstad.

Mrs Walstad: you always advice one lighting around of around 1 or 2 watts/gallon. I think that this rule is a little subjective, since it depends on many factors like the height of the aquarium, the type of reflector, etc. 

Have you ever made somekind of lighting measurement in your aquariums in lumens, PARs, etc? 

Do you have any reflectors with your fluorescent bulbs?

Thank you for you time.
Fernando Muñoz.


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## flagg (Nov 29, 2004)

Hey Fernando: I don't know if this will answer your question exactly, but here's a little light experiment whiskey did a while back...

http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/...xperment-answer-my.html?highlight=light+meter

-ricardo


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## Teeleton (Jun 8, 2006)

I've been planning on converting my plastic planted 55 of the past 7 years to an NTP, but looking at the lights that I have, the housings seem to be rated at 17 watts each. That means I'm looking at about 2/3W per gallon, which from what I'm reading is too weak. Especially since it's a "tall" 55 (21x48x12). Looking around at the LFS tonight, all the housings I saw that will fit my tank all seem to be of the same wattage range. Is my only real option to build myself a custom hood?

Teeleton


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## onemyndseye (May 12, 2006)

Teeleton,

You might be surprised at what you can do with only a couple watts per gallon. I think it is much more important for all factors to be in balance.... i.e. Lights, Nutrients, Available CO2...

Here is a pic of my tank running 2.5WPG. 









Its only a 17" tall tank or so.... but the lights are another few inches off the top of the water. It has to be close to 20" from bulb to substrate. 

Good Luck!
-Justin
One Mynds Eye


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## Teeleton (Jun 8, 2006)

I think you might have read my two-thirds of a watt per gallon as 2 or 3 watts per gallon. With a 55 gallon tank, in order to get 2w/gallon I need over 100 watts of light. I currently have 34W (17x2).

Teeleton


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## onemyndseye (May 12, 2006)

whoops... sure did 

Check out ebay.... you can get 110watts of PC's for under 100$


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## DataGuru (Mar 11, 2005)

If you have sunlight, that may be enough. In her book, Diana say she prefers a mix of sunlight and fluorescent lighting--one to two watts per gallon if the tank does not receive sunlight, less if the tank receives sunlight. She likes to use a combination of cool white and plant grow light fluorescent bulbs. Avoid tanks taller than 18 inches unless the tank will receive sunlight. She recommends a timer set to 10-14 hours of light per day. 

I usually do 2 wpg and sunlight.


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## Teeleton (Jun 8, 2006)

Yeah, I'm probably pounding a square peg into a round hole with this tank, but it's what I have, so it's what I'm using. The room it's in does get sunlight, but the window is north-facing, and the tank is about 20 feet from it, so while the room is "lit" the sunlight won't be direct.

I'll have a look around on Ebay.

Teeleton


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## goldielovr (Apr 12, 2006)

Maybe it would be quicker and easier to look around your area for someone who sells a food item in plastic tubs of several gallons which you could collect and use to hold your water/fish/plants until you can put down a layer of soil and a layer of substrate (gravel and or sand). You could use the opportunity to move the aquarium closer to the window as well.

An alternative might be to purchase additional light hoods and add them to your tank until you are closer to 2WPG.

I have NPTs that range all the way from all artificial to all sunlight. Any combination can and does work. You just have to set it up and experiment until you nail the proper combination of clear sunlight/filtered sunlight/artificial light(s) that will work for your setup.


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