# [Wet Thumb Forum]-lighting help for a 29g



## Hey You (May 22, 2003)

ive been trying to find a bulb for a 29g that can supply enough light for my planted aquarium. 
If any one could help that would be great!


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## Gomer (Feb 2, 2004)

May be more than you are asking...

I also have a 29g. This past friday I recieved my AHSupply.com 2x55watt kit. ..and it works GREAT!!!!!

my plants have never looked better.


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## jpmtotoro (Feb 13, 2003)

ha ha, you might be ok with a 1x55 instead (although coverage might be odd) OR you can totally go nuts like gomer and put 2x55 over it. gomer... i wanna see pics of your tank! 110 over 29... wow... sad thing is that i will be putting 220 over my 50, same thing







gonna roast me some plants!

JP


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## Doomer (Feb 2, 2003)

IMHE it's not as easy to light a 29 gal. as it may seem. At present I have 2 fixtures on mine, the one that came with the tank and a 55watt PC fixture. This is still not enough light. I may eventually get a 2x55 kit from AH Supply but I'll have to build a canopy first.

a 29 gal. is deep for it's size and therein lies the problem.


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## Gomer (Feb 2, 2004)

I can tell you that the 2x55 is more than enough light


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## Hey You (May 22, 2003)

does any body know where i can get a cheap 24 inch 55 watt tube for my 29g ???


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## Heady (Mar 4, 2003)

Cheap? No.

I bought my 55W CF strip light from BigAl's for like $70.


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## jpmtotoro (Feb 13, 2003)

if you're gonna DIY then hit www.ahsupply.com will get you the ballasts, great reflectors, and good prices on bulbs. if you don't want to DIY you can see if robert sells some JBJ PCs... or you can hit bigalsonline and check their tops... from all-glass i think. i have one... it's... ok... like ahsupply better, but it's a bit cheaper.

JP


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## Jon Mulzer (Mar 9, 2003)

I am about to buy a 29 myself, what does everyone think about a 55w kit centered in the canopy and then a 13w at each end? It would make a sort of "I" configuration. Would that be more even coverage? Any thoughts?

Disclaimer: Any errors in spelling, tact, or fact are transmission errors.


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## JCLewis814 (Apr 21, 2004)

I have a 29 gallon too, that I will be setting up in about 2 months and I was also considering lighting. I saw that JBJ makes the 30" 110W and 130W models. How many watts is overkill for a 29 gallon tank? Would an extra 20W (130 vs 110) make a drastic difference?


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## bharada (Apr 17, 2004)

JCLewis814,
Only the reflector will be 30" wide. The CF bulbs are <24" wide so you do end up with some light fall off at the ends of the tank.

I have two 65W Coralife Aqualights (one 6700K and one 50/50) over my 29 gal...the rear one is pushed over to the left side so that it better covers a stand of stem plants on that side. The front one is more centered since the right side of the tank is a stand of Vals that don't need as much light.

The reason I didn't go with two 6700K bulbs is that it made the tank a bit too green/yellow for my taste.


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## hubbahubbahehe (Mar 29, 2004)

bh, i found the 50/50 bulbs to be tooo artificial looking, which is perfect for corals, but weird on planted tanks.... 

i have a tank experiment right now with 50/50 bulbs trying to grow duckweed, frogbit and java moss...
'
the java moss is stringy, the duckweed is green and yellow and the new leaves of the frogbit are yellow....a drastic change from the daylight bulbs..


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## bharada (Apr 17, 2004)

I agree that the 50/50 on it's own is a bit stark, but in combination with the daylight bulb it evens out.

On my 40 gal tank I ordered a Aqualight with a 50/50 bulb by mistake, but I combined it with Hagen Life-Glo and Power-Glo tubes and find that it looks pleasing to my eye and my plants have been responding well to the combo...in the case of some swords, too well! I get mid-day pearling to the point that it looks like my tank is filled with 7-Up.







.


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## hubbahubbahehe (Mar 29, 2004)

interesting, it's good to hear your experience with it. 

I have one question, have you ever tried just using the powerglo and see if you still get the 7up effecT? or is it the special combination that provides that?


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## bharada (Apr 17, 2004)

Never tried just using the NO tubes alone. I have them on a separate timer than the 50/50 strip, and they come on 30 minutes earlier, but the intensity of light does not compare to the 50/50.

The plants don't start heavy pearling until all the lights have been on for three hours or so. The good thing that I can say is that I can't attribute any algae growth to the bulb...wish I could say the same about my iron dosing.


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## JCLewis814 (Apr 21, 2004)

bharada..

I have one more quick question. If I chose to run only one light in the 30" JBJ Deluxe Light fixture instead of 2 (to reduce the wattage in the beginning), would the reflector still be effective? I was just thinking that I could buy the deluxe now (instead of the standard single-light fixture) to give myself the possibility of additional light in the future if I needed to have it. But, I'm not sure if the double-light model will work will well with only one bulb.

Thanks for the info about the fixture before. That's good stuff to know









Jared


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## bharada (Apr 17, 2004)

Jared,
I'm not familiar with the JBJ fixtures, but if it's got a good reflector it should work OK with a single bulb. Even with the two 65W fixtures over my 29, it's not excessively bright...but a lot of that can be attributed to the large Rubin sword that's created a canopy over the back quarter of the tank







.

Bill


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## JCLewis814 (Apr 21, 2004)

Bill,

Great! Thanks for the help and advice









Jared


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## John N. (Dec 11, 2005)

I have a 29 gallon sitting around looking for attention. But I'm thinking about 2X55 ah kits for it. I have pressurized co2, and ferts on hand. Looking for updated opinions.

Is this definately too much light for the setup? Better to go with one? 

Or just go with the Coralife 65w? Good enough to provide good coverage?

-John N.


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## KRiley (Jun 30, 2005)

Hey John, I have 1x55 watt on my 29 gallon, and it looks to be plenty of light. I used a 2x55 watt bright kit from AH that I got from Robert. I use a 29 on each strip. I havent put many plants in at all....if i do. This set of 29 gallons are going to breed plecs. But looking at my 50 gallon with 260 watts on it...the 29s are definately lit up. Hope this helps.


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## Jane of Upton (Jul 28, 2005)

Riley - I'm not following what you mean by "I used a 2x55 watt bright kit from AH that I got from Robert. I use a 29 on each strip" - are you putting smaller wattage bulbs in the 2x55 kit? Or do you mean you have one 29 g tank with a 1x55 w kit strip, and another 29 g tank with a 2x55 w kit strip? 

And John M - if you have a 55w in the center, and two 13w on the ends in an " I " configuration, it seems you'd lose a lot of light dispersed sideways from the 13 w bulbs and/or their reflectors, as they would be parallel with the short walls of the tank, yet close to it, and with the angle of the light spread, a lot would go out the side without benefitting the tank or plants below. Could you modify the outer walls of the reflectors on the 13 watters? Perhaps shape them so the re-strike sends the light back into the tank, while the light coming more straight down off the bulb(s) benefits the area directly below the bulbs? (*sorry if this is hard to follow*). Its always a shame to lose good light!

So Hey You - you mentioned a 24" fixture you're considering. But your 29 gal is 30"x12"x18", right? The AH Supply kits really are a lot of "bang for the buck" in terms of quality lighting. If you build your own canopy or retro-fit an existing strip light housing, you can get very high quality lighting without breaking the bank. Have you checked out your local Used-For-Sale paper? Around here, they're called the "*town name* Shopper", or "Pennysaver" or "Swap Sheet", etc. You could also check out Craigslist.org, and find a city near you. I've bought used aquarium equipment via Craigslist before. Do your research first, so you know general prices on the different types of lighting (NO = normal output linear flourescents, Compact Flourescents, etc). Also, reflectors are very important too. Read the blurb about reflectors on the AH Supply website. Good luck finding a fixture!
-Jane


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## JCLewis814 (Apr 21, 2004)

John-

First off, I am no expert in tank lighting (or anything in aquariums for that matter). But, I'll try to tell you how this project turned out.

For the last year or so, I have tried several different combinations of lights on my 29 gallon tank. I started with 2x55's on a fresh tank and it turned out to be too much light for my tank (despite being heavily planted with lots of algae eaters... 10 hours a day). I was always battling some kind of algae.

I tried 1x65 at about the half year point and my tank stayed very stable (no algae problems), but there wasn't enough light for my plants and I started to see some deficiency in some of my more demanding plants (especially near the bottom of my tank). 

I have found that the optimum for MY 29 gallon tank has been a combination of a 55W and a 35W (24" tubes). It seems to keep my plants healthy and my tank is very stable.

I'm sure that there is another combination you could go with and it will depend greatly on the plants and fish in your tank. Just keep in mind that a 29 gallon tank is fairly deep(relatively), so you'll need to get some pretty strong lights to reach the bottom. 

If I were to do it again. I would go with a dual fixture setup again just because it gave me more options with respect to which bulbs I used.

I hope this answers your question.

Let me know if you have any questions.

JC


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