# to much light?



## OakRaid (Mar 17, 2004)

Tank .. 50 Gal 48 x 12 x 18 .. pressurized co2 with controller. Heavily planted, with mostly fast growing stem plant as it is a pretty new set up.
my question on lighting is ... I have a Coralite PC 2 x 65, and because of the narrow beam from the fixture, There is a lot of areas in the tank that don't really get much light. I am using a 4 ft 40 watt single bulb fixture in front of the PC fixture just to get the rest of the tank lighted.
My question is .. could I just add another 4 ft 2 x 65 fixture .. Or would this be to much light for this tank? I know you can have problems if the tank has to much light, and being new with the planted tanks, I don't want to cause myself problems. Appreciate the input. Thanks!


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## dennis (Mar 1, 2004)

You have plenty of light 3.6 is plenty Just the 2x65 would be enough but I understand the coverage problems. Learn how to make this work, make sure your CO2 stays in the 30's and follow a consistant dosing/wc regiment and every thing will grow great. Be patient Have fun.


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## Steve Pituch (Jan 25, 2004)

Can you bend the reflector edges apart more? This would spread the light a bit, and is one of the advantages of using the AHS DIY setups. If you raise the light about about 6 inches off of the cover glass it would do the trick also. In fact, if you raise the light based on the posts from Tom Barr and me, on this forum, you can get rid of the cover glass and have the advantages of an open top tank.

Steve Pituch


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## OakRaid (Mar 17, 2004)

spituch said:


> Can you bend the reflector edges apart more? This would spread the light a bit, and is one of the advantages of using the AHS DIY setups. If you raise the light about about 6 inches off of the cover glass it would do the trick also. In fact, if you raise the light based on the posts from Tom Barr and me, on this forum, you can get rid of the cover glass and have the advantages of an open top tank.
> 
> Steve Pituch


Hi Steve ... No, don't think I can change the reflector in any way. The Coralite fixture...Just has an opening just big enough at the bottom for the size of the reflector...The rest of the width is a sealed part of the fixture.
I guess I should have looked around more before I bought this light.
I have thought about raising the light .. But thought about light loss around the tank, and also if the glare from the light would be an irratant from across the room.


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## Steve Pituch (Jan 25, 2004)

Hi Oakraid,

I don't want you to feel bad about the Coralife fixture. I've heard they are pretty nice. What if you put it inside a wooden enclosure like on the AHSupply web site. You would have the best of both worlds. The wood enclosure would be deep enough to prevent light spillover in the front and you could extend the ends down to give you a few inches of clearance. I don't think you would lose very much light intensity by raising it a few inches as it isn't a point source and should not follow the inverse square rule. It would be dimmer because the light will be more evenly distributed, but the overall instensity shouldn't decrease much. 

Regards,
Steve Pituch


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