What Lighting...

For a 60L tank. How many tubes and what wattage?

Thanks,

Marcus

Forget about the tubes...I cheat and use spiral daylight compact
fluorescents that screw into a regular light socket. They are cheaper and
brighter than the tubes. I currently do a 29 gallon with just one modified
incandescent light strip. I've got a fair number of plants but most are
crypts, anubias, and java fern variants. I do have an Amazon Sword and a
Aponogeton ulvaceus that both seem to be doing just fine.

Good luck!

PS In answer to your question, 2 20W spiral daylight compact fluorescents
should give you enough light for just about anything except the really
exotic stuff in that kind of tank. I use the 5100k bulbs.

"SG" wrote in message
...
In article , Fish Heads
wrote:
snip

PS In answer to your question, 2 20W spiral daylight compact
fluorescents
should give you enough light for just about anything except the really
exotic stuff in that kind of tank. I use the 5100k bulbs.

I disagree 2w/gallon, 0.5w/l is only "low light." There are plants
that will grow in low light, and other common plants that will mearly
survive. There are other plants that do much better under 2 and 3
times that much light. 2x20w flourescent is fine though for those of
us who are interested in adding low light plants to liven up our
aquarium. (Something I recomend to all aquarist.)

Two watts per gallon is only 'low light'?? *gulp*, and you would run
6w/g.... I'm going to have to make my little fishies tiny sunglasses ;~)

NetMax

"NetMax" wrote in message
. ..

"SG" wrote in message
...
In article , Fish Heads
wrote:
snip

PS In answer to your question, 2 20W spiral daylight compact
fluorescents
should give you enough light for just about anything except the really
exotic stuff in that kind of tank. I use the 5100k bulbs.

I disagree 2w/gallon, 0.5w/l is only "low light." There are plants
that will grow in low light, and other common plants that will mearly
survive. There are other plants that do much better under 2 and 3
times that much light. 2x20w flourescent is fine though for those of
us who are interested in adding low light plants to liven up our
aquarium. (Something I recomend to all aquarist.)

Two watts per gallon is only 'low light'?? *gulp*, and you would run
6w/g.... I'm going to have to make my little fishies tiny sunglasses ;~)

So, I'll need 30 watts for 15 gallons then? One 15 W tube and one reflector.

Marcus

In article , NetMax wrote:

Two watts per gallon is only 'low light'?? *gulp*, and you would run
6w/g....

heh reef keepers run 8 and up. I suspect the that freshwater plants
guys run similar. 2w/gal is low, but it is also enough to keep a good
number of plants.

Most freshwater plant folks who also keep fish in the tanks use between 2-4
wpg.

More is great for plant only tanks.


Graham.

"SG" wrote in message
...
In article , NetMax wrote:

Two watts per gallon is only 'low light'?? *gulp*, and you would run
6w/g....

heh reef keepers run 8 and up. I suspect the that freshwater plants
guys run similar. 2w/gal is low, but it is also enough to keep a good
number of plants.

The two watts per gallon you mention is from the "old days" of fluorescent
tubes. For compact flourescent (especially spirals), that number is lower
because they give off sooo much light.


"SG" wrote in message
...
In article , Fish Heads wrote:

Forget about the tubes...I cheat and use spiral daylight compact
fluorescents that screw into a regular light socket. They are
cheaper and brighter than the tubes.

I us these as well. They are great if you have an old incandescent
hood. If you are setting up new though they are more expensive then
T12 tubes. 24" 20watt plant grow tubes are half the cost of compacts.

If you can swing a hammer you can easily build your own light hood to
hold as much light as you wish. DIY light assemblies range from
Hagen's GloMat2 fully assembled endcaps and ballast, to parts that
require some assembly.

If you want lots of light look to PowerCompat where a single 21"/55cm
tube puts out 55w of high quality light. If you are in the UK look for
T5 tubes. For an ideal of what is out there have a look at:
http://hellolights.com/
It is probably not the best place to order though. I took pictures
into a local industrial supply store and they found the parts for me
for less.


PS In answer to your question, 2 20W spiral daylight compact
fluorescents
should give you enough light for just about anything except the really
exotic stuff in that kind of tank. I use the 5100k bulbs.

I disagree 2w/gallon, 0.5w/l is only "low light." There are plants
that will grow in low light, and other common plants that will mearly
survive. There are other plants that do much better under 2 and 3
times that much light. 2x20w flourescent is fine though for those of
us who are interested in adding low light plants to liven up our
aquarium. (Something I recomend to all aquarist.)

In article , Fish Heads wrote:
The two watts per gallon you mention is from the "old days" of fluorescent
tubes. For compact flourescent (especially spirals), that number is lower
because they give off sooo much light.

Compact fluoroscents are no brighter then tubes from the "old days."
Compact fluorescents put out about 60lumens/watt the same as normal
output T12 and T8 tubes. Power Compacts on the other hand pump out
80-90lumens/watt.

Replying to two posts at once.

NetMax wrote:
"SG" wrote in message
heh reef keepers run 8 and up. I suspect the that freshwater plants
guys run similar. 2w/gal is low, but it is also enough to keep a good
number of plants.

I've never heard of any freshwater tank with more than 4 W/gallon. 2 W/gallon
is most definitely not low light. 1 W/gallon is. My 110 g tank has 1 W/gallon
and I grow a large variety of plants, including some so-called high-light
plants.

I think you are in r.a.f.p. more than I am these days, but the number I
hear repeated a lot, is to keep below 3 w/g unless you are using CO2

That sounds about the right number.

in 1.2w/g have grown effortlessly. I believe you could go higher than
3w/g in a non-CO2 tank, but the equilibrium becomes more hairy to manage,
so I wouldn't recommend it without CO2 injection, JMNSHO.

Absolutely! Without added CO2, the extra light would be wasted.

--
Victor M. Martinez

http://www.che.utexas.edu/~martiv

"SG" wrote in message
...
In article , NetMax
wrote:

I think you are in r.a.f.p. more than I am these days, but the number
I
hear repeated a lot, is to keep below 3 w/g unless you are using CO2
injection, otherwise you risk making green soup out of your freshwater
aquarium.

Interesting. I may get that CO2 injector for the new tank after all.

Full noon tropical sunlight is about 10000 (10k)
lumens/square_foot. About equivalent to 110-125watts/square_foot of
high intensity flourescent (VHO, power compact) or metal halide. By a
rough measure as sunlight has a much better spectrum then man made
light.

Interesting data, so my 60g would receive 6 sq.ft. x 120w at high noon
(equivalent to 720w or 12w/g). I wonder how far from noon the sun has to
be for refraction to significantly reduce light penetration. The
tropical sun is on more than the daily typical 12 hours of light we use,
but our lights are full on instead of peaking at high noon, and we don't
have to content with cloudy days. In my 2.7 w/g setup, there is 160w or
1,920w/day. I wonder what a tropical exposure would be after allowing
for refraction & cloud cover. I bet it would still be more than
1,920w/day. I might have this in my notes for solar radiation by
latitude, but to find it *&#!. Anyone have this figure handy? It's
commonly used for solar panel configurations.

NetMax