# 20" Freshwater Aqualight 1x96watt (Quad)



## michalcz (Jan 8, 2006)

Has anyone had any experience with the 20" Freshwater Aqualight Coralife Dual Linear Strip Light (1x96W Total)? 

It seems like a very interesting unit. It consists of 1 quad 6700K bulb that pumps out almost 100 watts!! I also found it online for $93.00 complete with housing. 

I looked at the AH Supply 2x36Watt but if you figure the expense of making a housing plus the cost of the unit, it would probably cost more than $93.00 and it would give out less light.

I was wondering if anyone out there uses the Aqualight CoralLife 1x96watt quad or knows anything about it? I plan to use it in my 18gal.


----------



## emoore3 (Dec 21, 2005)

Are you planning on making your 18 gallon a reef! That is a lot of light. I think that might be too much light for an 18 gallon. It would be interesting to see if any plants survive with that amount of light.


----------



## michalcz (Jan 8, 2006)

I was under the impression that the more light the better. If I am mistaken please let me know. I am very new to this hobby and I would appreciate any wisdom you could offer. 

If I put a 100 watt light in a 18 gal tank, it would work out to 5.5 watts per gal. Is that too much?


----------



## Jason45 (Jan 22, 2005)

I have one of these quads I use for my planted tank. I have had a really good experience with it. Puts out a lot of light...and heat. Be sure if you keep it under a enclosed top to consider a fan to circulate the air.

Regarding the amount of light, depends on the types of plants you plan on having. For higher light demanding plants, the watts per gallon generally accepted is 2-3 watts per gallon. Might want to consider a bigger aquarium. Would also seriously consider supplementing with CO2 and fertilizer with that much light. Otherwise, you will be raising a bunch of algae as well 

-J


----------



## gnatster (Mar 6, 2004)

Being as the WPG guide breaks down at smaller and larger tank sizes this fixture makes sense for a hi tech type tank with CO2 and regular dosing. 

The first question would be to define the goals. From that you can decide if the light is suficient or not.


----------



## dennis (Mar 1, 2004)

I tis certainly doable although overkill. Ti will be alot of work to maintain and you will ahve to be VERY dilitent with maintainence and fertalizing. CO2 in good levels consistantly will be absolutely necessary.

Personally I would go with 2-1x36 watt from AH Supply. Reason being 2- 1x units is so you can control each light independantly . I would run one for 3 hours, both for 5-6 hours and 1 again for 3 hours. AH has better reflectors so 72 watts of AH is probably not that much less light in the end than 96watts. Also, it is easier and cheaper to get bulbs in 36 watts and you have many options for bulbs and K ratings, with 96 quads you only have 1 or 2 chioces for tubes.

I agree completely with gnatster's advice about deciding what youwant before you buy this light.


----------



## michalcz (Jan 8, 2006)

I guess since I am new to this hobby, I just want to grow some plants. I don't really understand your advice about setting goals. Are you refering to what types of plants I want to grow? Or maybe how much growth I want to sustain? I definetly plan on supplementing CO2 and fertilization. 

What size tank would you guys suggest for the quad light? I already spontaneously purchased the light. Too bad I didn't sign up to APC earlier.

Also, what is the benefit of running bulbs independently like Dennis mentioned? Is to to more effectively mimic lighting as it occurs in nature?


----------



## dennis (Mar 1, 2004)

Basically decide how much time you want to spend doing maintainence and the types of plants you want to have. With that much light youwill have to prune stem plants alteast once a week, some twice. Algae will be harder to control and deal with, you will need to use more fertalizers, especially traces.

Lighting like I suggested will allow you to have a shortened period of intense, growth forcing light by using both bulbs. The single bulb will simple be ther to sustain life and allow you to view the tank longer. The shortened period of high light will allow you to grow light demanding plants with out over driving them, or having such high growth rates as to drive you nuts. After about 5 hours or so of very intense light the plants have done all their major growing fo rthe day. You can only force them so much.

See my post "dennis's 50 gallon journal" in the aquascaping forum to see my tank journal that uses this technique. It is fairly common to do this using halide lighting but you can do it with PC lighing also for the same reasons.


----------



## turbomkt (Mar 31, 2004)

Michal,
If you are stuck on the 96W you might consider a deeper tank. On the flip side...it's harder to scape a taller tank (IMO).


----------



## michalcz (Jan 8, 2006)

I'm not really stuck *on* the 96W, its more like I'm stuck *with* the 96W now that I purchased it.

The 18 gal that I own right now is actually quite tall. It's essentially the same height as two 10 gal tanks stacked on top of each other. Could this added height be enough to effectively make the light less intense, and actually make it a good choice for the tank? If not, please let me know what size tank you would recommend for the light.

Is it detrimental to your plants if you "over drive" them with light? Also, I read that 6700K is the proper frequency for aquatic plants. What about 10,000K? Do they have any use in a freshwater tank?


----------



## turbomkt (Mar 31, 2004)

It might work for you, then. And plants will do fine if you're running high light, as long as you have enough CO2 and ferts. But it's easier to run into problems if you don't watch things closely.

As for 10,000K...the plants will probably adapt without any problems. Is it really 10000K? Looking at this page it looks like either 50/50 or 6700K are the options.

$.02


----------



## michalcz (Jan 8, 2006)

The bulb is not 10,000K. I was just curious. 

For a 18gal what kind of CO2 supplementation would you recommend? I was thinking of using a DIY yeast, sugar, water etc... I was also just researching about Seachem's Flourish Excel. Do you think using a DIY system with Excel would provide enough CO2? Or do I need something high tech?


----------



## Left C (Jun 14, 2005)

I have the 20" 96w Freshwater Aqualight over a 15g tall. I have the flip up legs and it's an open top tank. Get these legs they're great: http://www.esuweb.com/cardfile.asp?ItemNumber=53090&IDProductRelationship=258 I use a fan over it in the summertime but in the winter it's fine. I have pressurized CO2 on this tank. The only algae problems that I have now is the green dust type of algae on the glass. I have to scrape a little every week when I do water changes. I stay on top of my ferts to keep the algae at bay, though. Before I went to a pressurized CO2 system, I had some trouble with black beard algae. I even had two of the Hagen CO2 kits on the tank but I couldn't beat it. I dosed a little heavily with Excel and added the pressurize CO2 and it went away.

Presently, I'm working out a method similar to the EI approach on this tank but using Seachem's line. I have Greg Watson's ferts but I want to do this.

Getting back to the light; if I had to do it over, I'd do what Dennis mentioned and use a AHSupply enclosure with 2-1x36w kits and get the 7" wide double reflector that comes with the 2x36w kit.


----------



## dennis (Mar 1, 2004)

DIY CO2 would be a pain and Excel would not be enough. It is expensive also. I would recommend you get a pressurized setup before you start with that much light; even if you have to wait to get it, it will be worth the wait.


----------



## czado (May 26, 2005)

Could use a 50% actinic bulb if you want to lower effective wattage.


----------



## michalcz (Jan 8, 2006)

Would a DIY CO2 setup be that big of a pain? According to your poll on the front page, about 38% of the good folks of APC use some form of non-pressurized (yeast) method to supplement CO2 into their tanks. There must be some benefit in using that type of system, maybe I'm mistaken.

I was thinking of using a forced reaction chamber to transfer the CO2 from some kind of yeast mixture into the tank, in an effort to make the system as efficient as possible. With almost 5.5 watts/gal do you think it would generate enough CO2? Or do you think it just wouldn't be worth the trouble?

Any opinions on the OTTO Force CO2 reactor?

Using a 50% actinic is a good thought, and I just might have to do that.


----------



## czado (May 26, 2005)

IME, DIY CO2 for high light in such small volume is easy, as long as you do not mind staggering bottles to maintain some stability. I EI too and find it is best to extend the philosophy to DIY CO2: keep the nominal output above 30ppm and you will be fine. I have no experience with that reactor, but generally prefer forced/powered reactors. Building one is really no harder than drilling the bottle caps or making a bubble counter, by the way. There are many designs and howtos on the DIY forums here and elsewhere.


----------



## Left C (Jun 14, 2005)

dennis said:


> DIY CO2 would be a pain and Excel would not be enough. It is expensive also. I would recommend you get a pressurized setup before you start with that much light; even if you have to wait to get it, it will be worth the wait.


I agree 100% with Dennis about the set up. I had 2 DIY's plus Excel on the 15g and it was not enough and it was a PITA. Pressurized is the way to go. You need consistantly strong CO2 with this combination and IMO DIY CO2 is not consistant enough for this combination. If you could see the "bushyness" and redness of my _L. repens_, the coloration of my _Ammannia _and the thickness of my dwarf _Sagittaria_ lawn; you'd get the pressurized system. I have the Azoo regulator and Milwaukee controller. I'm using the Hagen ladder with a RIO 50 powerhead over the ladder for the diffuser. It works really good. You see the plants pearling constantly when the lights are on.


----------



## Samala (Jun 13, 2005)

Alternatively, you could go marine as suggested.  Ok, so that's not really in the cards, but I used this same fixture to grow seagrasses in a ten gallon. 

However.. could you cut down the amount of light (since its already ordered) by shading it with window screening material? Flexible, dark in color, small 1mm square holes, used for insect screening mostly, available by the 5yard package at most home stores. I cant imagine it being a problem to lay a sheet or two of this over the top of the tank to cut down on lighting. 

The 50/50 actinic bulbs are usually actinic + 10k.. so that might be a good idea as well. Very little value from the actinic as far as I understand. 

Good luck with it! I am probably going to use the same light with the 6700K fixture over a 20H with a staggered DIY CO2 and see how that goes with some high light lawn plants. 

>Sarah


----------

