I need help finding affordable lighting that is not going to burn my house down lol
http://shop.aquatraders.com/Odyssea-48i ... /52208.htm
Looked into these but comparing with other lights in the range it doesn't look like to sturdy of a product considering prices in the same category. Can anyone point me in the direction of some decent lights that won't break the bank.
Starting a 55 Gal Planted tank...Lighting help
4 posts
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mymindseye81 - Posts: 2
- Joined: Wed Nov 26, 2008 5:18 pm
in my 75 i use 1 blue actinic and 1 10,000K, both are made by Coralife. the price is about $30 each. the light spectrum these bulbs put off is brilliant. it will enhance all whites and blues, its a very nice touch. here is a pic of my tank. the first 1 is with both lights on and the 2nd one is with just the blue for moon lighting. also if you ever want to put live plants in the tank, the 10,000K is enough luminous to grow a lot of different species of plant. i keep Anubias plants and Val.
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peterkarig - Posts: 111
- Joined: Wed Oct 24, 2007 3:06 am
It depends on what plants you want to grow.
Anubis (nana-small)(bartari-large), Java moss and Java fern, Amazon sword and other low to medium light plants can be grown quite well with hardware store variety flourecsents.
On my 100 gallon I have a 4 foot long 4 bullb 40 watts each fixture.
As with all flourescents you need to change the bulbs every 8-12 months, and with the hardware variety the cost saving is well below what you'd be spending on high output aquarium lights.
These lights are not as hot either, and the only thing that is a problem is that the hardware variety are designed to be hung, not placed on an aquarium, so you'll need to be creative.
You'll have a choice in bulbs from daylight to plant growing, etc. I'm not sure what the best arangement is, but in the old days I was told to mix ones with red hues with ones with white hues.
Right now I'm using this light with plant bulbs over my 100 gallon and have the above mentioned plants as well as red water lilly growing quite well with no co2.
I say go for it. No fans needed for cooling either, unless you cover the fixture with a cloth as I once did to make it look better.
Anubis (nana-small)(bartari-large), Java moss and Java fern, Amazon sword and other low to medium light plants can be grown quite well with hardware store variety flourecsents.
On my 100 gallon I have a 4 foot long 4 bullb 40 watts each fixture.
As with all flourescents you need to change the bulbs every 8-12 months, and with the hardware variety the cost saving is well below what you'd be spending on high output aquarium lights.
These lights are not as hot either, and the only thing that is a problem is that the hardware variety are designed to be hung, not placed on an aquarium, so you'll need to be creative.
You'll have a choice in bulbs from daylight to plant growing, etc. I'm not sure what the best arangement is, but in the old days I was told to mix ones with red hues with ones with white hues.
Right now I'm using this light with plant bulbs over my 100 gallon and have the above mentioned plants as well as red water lilly growing quite well with no co2.
I say go for it. No fans needed for cooling either, unless you cover the fixture with a cloth as I once did to make it look better.
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peterkarig - Posts: 111
- Joined: Wed Oct 24, 2007 3:06 am
Oh yea, I also grew a small variety of val with this light over my 75 gallon and it looked awsome, like a feild of grass with old tree stumps as well.
Some people like the blue actinic look on fresh water planted aquariums. I've done quit a bit of research on this, and discussed it on this forum and others that are specifically for plant freaks, and the general consensis is that actinic is good for fresh water plants, but straight daylight is better.
It's very hard to find high ouput lights without this combo. Just keep in mind that not all blue is true actinic.
Some people like the blue actinic look on fresh water planted aquariums. I've done quit a bit of research on this, and discussed it on this forum and others that are specifically for plant freaks, and the general consensis is that actinic is good for fresh water plants, but straight daylight is better.
It's very hard to find high ouput lights without this combo. Just keep in mind that not all blue is true actinic.