Lighting ?

[Bud Nelson]

Looking for light help for a 75 gal. freshwater tropical setup. I have a
home made canopy, the lights will be about 10 inches above the water.
I`ll be using 4 ft. T-12 fluorescent tubes. I`ll have no live plants in
the tank. I was thinking about 2- 50% daylight 50% actinic3. That would
give me 80 watts of light, the problem I would be worried about would
be, would the extra blue give me a hough algae problem. At this point, I
am open to suggestions as to what spectrum and how much light to use.
Not quite sure, my hood is set for 4, 4 ft. tubes. So, I can get up to
160 watts of light on the tank. Thank you much. Bud (e/mail welcome,
spam gets reported.)

[~Vicki ~]

I keep low/moderate light plants so can not really help you with
lighting, but actinic and 50/50 lighting is for marine use and will not
help your plants grow. If you replace these bulbs with full spectrum
lighting you should have good results with your plants. While shopping
for bulbs just read the label and make sure that they are for plant
growth.

Vicki

Looking for light help for a 75 gal. freshwater tropical setup. I have a
home made canopy, the lights will be about 10 inches above the water.
I`ll be using 4 ft. T-12 fluorescent tubes. I`ll have no live plants in
the tank. I was thinking about 2- 50% daylight 50% actinic3. That would
give me 80 watts of light, the problem I would be worried about would
be, would the extra blue give me a hough algae problem. At this point, I
am open to suggestions as to what spectrum and how much light to use.
Not quite sure, my hood is set for 4, 4 ft. tubes. So, I can get up to
160 watts of light on the tank. Thank you much. Bud (e/mail welcome,
spam gets reported.)

[NetMax]

"Bud Nelson" > wrote in message
...
> Looking for light help for a 75 gal. freshwater tropical setup. I have
a
> home made canopy, the lights will be about 10 inches above the water.
> I`ll be using 4 ft. T-12 fluorescent tubes. I`ll have no live plants
in
> the tank. I was thinking about 2- 50% daylight 50% actinic3. That would
> give me 80 watts of light, the problem I would be worried about would
> be, would the extra blue give me a hough algae problem. At this point,
I
> am open to suggestions as to what spectrum and how much light to use.
> Not quite sure, my hood is set for 4, 4 ft. tubes. So, I can get up to
> 160 watts of light on the tank. Thank you much. Bud (e/mail welcome,
> spam gets reported.)
>

That's a lot of light on a 75g with no plants. I have a 66g with 4 tubes
(medium planted in fluorite, no CO2 injection, hard water, high pH).
After doing some
research, I found my final choices were somewhat constrained by
availability, but I ended up with the following.

2 Philips F40-DX Daylight CRI 85, 6500K $3cdn each (Home Depot)
1 Sylvania F40/GRO/AQ/WS Gro-Lux $7.50cdn (Home Hardware)
1 GE F40C50 Chroma 50 Sunshine CRI 90, 5000K $7cdn (Canadian Tire)
- for the princely sum of $20.50cdn (or $12.50 US)

I'm sure that I'd have an algae farm if it was not for my plants.

I'd lose the actinics (or experiment to see if you like the effect), and
try running only 1 or 2 tubes at a time. Without live plants, the
lighting is really just for your viewing pleasure.

NetMax

[~Vicki ~]

Boy NetMax that is a good price for lighting. I pay $20 a bulb for my
plant bulbs. One of these days I will have to break down and buy a new
lighting system for my planted tank.

Vicki

That's a lot of light on a 75g with no plants. I have a 66g with 4 tubes
(medium planted in fluorite, no CO2 injection, hard water, high pH).
After doing some
research, I found my final choices were somewhat constrained by
availability, but I ended up with the following.
2 Philips F40-DX Daylight CRI 85, 6500K $3cdn each (Home Depot) 1
Sylvania F40/GRO/AQ/WS Gro-Lux $7.50cdn (Home Hardware) 1 GE F40C50
Chroma 50 Sunshine CRI 90, 5000K $7cdn (Canadian Tire)
- for the princely sum of $20.50cdn (or $12.50 US)
I'm sure that I'd have an algae farm if it was not for my plants.
I'd lose the actinics (or experiment to see if you like the effect), and
try running only 1 or 2 tubes at a time. Without live plants, the
lighting is really just for your viewing pleasure.
NetMax

[Bud Nelson]

Thank you all for the lighting info. What I did get was 2 - 4 foot T12
fluorescent colormax. I thought also that 4 tubes would be to much
light. These tubes are full spectrum lights. I have no idea where you
people are from but, this is where I did all of my shopping. If you care
to check them out, they can be found at this URL.
www.thatfishplace.com they sell anything you would need for any animals.
Thanks again, Bud