Lighting question.

[DaveDude77]

I got myself a 120G fish tank and I was wondering about lighting for it. I understand that 3WPG is great lighting and I know it's true because that's the setup I have for my 32G and the plants are loving it. That being the case, I'd need 360W of lighting for my 120G, right? How the heck do you get that much wattage when lights from the LFS put out only 40W? Do I really have to find some way to setup 9 of these puppies???? How do you people with 200G, 300G, & 350G tanks light yours? Pics would be nice if you have them.

[Boom]

You could go Metal Halide. One bulb is 400 watts. I happen to have one for sale here:

Metal halide f/s

[punman]

Are you doing plants in your 125? If not, wattage does not matter.

[Parachromis1]

Hallide, or power compacts are the way to go my friend.

[thegrandpoohbah]

Forget the PCs and go with T5HO. You get more light and better penetration. MH is good too if you can deal with the heat.

[byte]

There are lots of lights out there that will put out enough wattage.

500 watts MH + T5

400 watts of T5

260 watts PC

Edited October 25, 2008 by byte

[DaveDude77]

Wow, those lights are !!EXPENSIVE!! :shock: I got the tank and stand second hand for just $200, I never thought I would be spending $1500+ on lighting. Yeah punman, I was thinking of having plants in my 120, my 32 looks so cool with real plant life. But with costs like that, maybe I'll reconsider. Well, maybe until I come across a good deal of money.

Thanks boom for the offer but wouldn't a light like that end up cooking my fish? Kind of like what Poohbah mentioned. Unless of course I hang it a couple of feet from the top. But if I do that, it'll light up the whole room to blinding, wouldn't it? What I mean is our house is really small and turning on a light like that in our basement would be so bright we'd need sunglasses to go down there and check out the fish. I'm figuring that light is like the ones we have hanging in the shop from the ceiling. Am I right? Man, those things are bright!!

Here's something else you all may like to answer for me, please. I was looking around the internet at different lights and people keep talking about T5, T8, and so on. What are all these light codes? Please remember I'm only 3mths into this hobby and I'm still learning things. So if I ask silly questions, laugh if you like, you wouldn't be the first. At least I'm making people smile and that very important to me.

Thanks to all that have responded so far, and thanks for the links byte. The links opened my eyes to lighting and set me on a goal.

[Drydock]

DaveDude 77,

You can take multiple bulbs with smaller wattages and add them together. You don't need 500 watts coming out of one bulb. (You probably shouldn't either)

The T5HO are a great idea, but you are right, they are money.

You can go to Home Depot and get a T8 4 bulb shop fixture and then put the phillips aquarium and plant bulbs in there ($8 each?) I used a 2 bulb shop light on my 72 gallon and had good plant growth. I am thinking of the 4 foot bulbs...

You would probably need 2 of those setups, but it would be a far cry from $1500 (Maybe even less than $200)

T5 or T8 is the size of the bulb. T12 is what you see in most commercial applications for fluorescent lights in the ceiling. T8 is a 'thinner' tube and is also more efficient, but you need a T8 ballast to run it. They are easy to find, even if you wanted to retrofit an older canopy, but you cant just throw in T8 bulbs in a T12 canopy, that's all.

T5, as I understand, is even smaller and even more efficient, but require their own type of fixture.

[werner]

I would also recommend one of the more intense types of lighting. PCs are ok, but I like T5HOs better- they penetrate well in my 2' deep tank. MH is awesome, but you you may have to limit your on time with them since they're so intense (algae).

I'm currently using 2x54W T5HO + 2X150W M on a 120 gal tank (4'x2'x2'). The MH are only on for a burst in the middle of the day.

[thegrandpoohbah]

Here's something else you all may like to answer for me, please. I was looking around the internet at different lights and people keep talking about T5, T8, and so on. What are all these light codes? Please remember I'm only 3mths into this hobby and I'm still learning things. So if I ask silly questions, laugh if you like, you wouldn't be the first. At least I'm making people smile and that very important to me.

For fluorescent tubes the number refers to the diameter of the bulb in eigths of an inch. So a T8 bulb is 8/8ths of an inch and T5 is 5/8ths of an inch. These bulbs are not interchangeable because the pins on the ends of the bulbs are configured dfferently.

PC is Power Compact which is basically a T5 tube bent into a U shape. The reason a T5 is more efficient than a PC is because it has a slimmer profile which results in less re-strike. Re-strike is the light that gets reflected by the reflector in the light fixture but then hits the bulb again. A slimmer bulb has less re-strike which means more of the light is reflected into the tank.

A T5HO means T5 High Output = more wattage than a standard T5 bulb. You can't just stick a T5HO bulb into a regular T5 fixture as the ballast was not designed for the higher wattage.

For a deeper tank such as yours, PCs would be the minimum required for good plant growth but T5HO and MH penetrate much better through the water and would allow you to keep some of the more light-demanding plants (ground cover, etc.).

[2manytanks]

Since you live in Calgary, check out Gold's. They have some nice T5 HO TEK-Light fixtures that would do you just fine. About 1/3 of the price you'd be looking at for a MH fixture.

[devocole]

Also i would suggest looking into what kind of plants you are interested in as well. If you want foregound high light demanding plants you will have to do higher wattage. But if you are going to be doing things with crypt and hygro for ex, that amount of wattage is not necessary.

Regards Devon

[DaveDude77]

You're right Devocole, I was looking around the internet at different plants and found that as long as I stay away from coloured plants with reds, I could get away with 1.5wpg. I guess I was hooked on 3wpg only because it worked so well in my 32G tank. 180W is a little more attainable.

Thanks Drydock & Poohbah for the explanation on those light terms. That really straightened things out. Does anyone know if grow lights come in T12 tubes? My boss is throwing out a bunch of those two tube, 4' office light fixtures. Maybe I can put some lights in those and rig two together. I can't wait until Boom does the lighting on his project. I want to see how he's building it and what he's using.

Thanks 2manytanks for the lead. My friend at work is always telling me to go check out Gold's and Riverfront, but I haven't made it down to either of them yet. Mostly Pisces and Big Al's. Now I may have to, just to price stuff out.

Don't stop offering suggestions, tips, and leads folks. I really appreciate it a lot.

[DaveDude77]

OK so I should have looked before I asked but I did find out that grow lights do come in t12 sizes.

Here's some more questions;

On these websites they talk about lumens. When I want 1.5wpg, how would that convert to lumens/gallon? Or can you even do that? What the heck is a lumen anyway?

They also talk about temperature. 5500K, 10000K, and so on. What's the best temperature for aquatic plants?

[thegrandpoohbah]

What's the best temperature for aquatic plants?

6700K, but anything between 6000-10000K is fine.