Daro Flourescents

Hi all

Busy reading through many many posts.. I inherited a tank and I am slowly putting it together.

I think I have settled on the Palmfiber/chemicult setup by Dirk.. still need to find out about his fertiliser regiment.

What I would like to know is as far as lighting, the tank came with the above tubes.. I think there is 1x20w and 1x40 or 36w. Its almost purple in colouration when they are switched on.

My tank is approximately 40 gallons ( distance from canopy lights to tank sand bed is approx 60cm) so I am aiming at 80 watts = 2w per gallon. So I know I need to add 1 x 20w to bring it up to that mark. I believe this will be sufficient for most plants?

Are these tubes any good? They are not cheap but I like the colouration they give the tank. Can you guys recommend something else which may be better but astheatically will give the same result?

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=de&tl=en&u=http://www.pbase.com/plantella/xlarge_tank

Also I would like to know from some of the 'old skool' ... the tank in the above link. What sort of stuff would they be running...

i.e what lighting?
substrate?
CO2?
Water changes?
How do they achieve that carpet look?

I have been obsessing over that photo.. its crazy!

 

Hi MichyBlue...

i followed that link.. but there are numerous tanks there... so you would have to tell us which one you like.

Basically with your lighting you would want to balance out the lighting. I personally beleive that that watt per gallon/litre rule is as outdated as undergravel filters... but this rule still gives you a very basic start up.

On your tubes there is another rating... called the Kelvin rating. This rating gives you the temperature rating of the globe... or another way to say it is the spectrum of light. You will agree with me that light is made up of all the colours of the rainbow. White light is all the colours in equal preportion.

The higher up the kelvin scale the globe is rated, the different type of light is emitted. In my tank I was running 3 x 30w 10,000k lights. This gave me 90Watts of light, as a very bright colour. 10,000k in my opinion is very white, but gives the water a clear colour due to it's blueness in the globe. I was unfortunately struggling with algae blooms, and it was recommended to me to change 2 of the 10,000K globes to 6,500K. I did so. The globes were rated at 24 watts if I remember correctly, but because the kelvin rating was more suited for the plant growth, I was getting better growth on the lower watts than on the higher watts.

If you start going lower (4,500K) you will find that your tank appears reddish/oragne and lok dirty... BUT the lower Kelving rating, according to some of the reading I'm currently doing, favours plant growth.

The article I am reading was pretty extreme in his suggestin for optimum growth was to have a very red globe giving off the 3000 to 4000K light, but to make the tank look good to yourself, add a very high 14,000K globe.

I would HIGHLY recommend you do a LOT of research before purchasing your globes. They are pretty expensive mistake if you get it wrong.

 

Thanks so much for the reply Zoom... That helps a lot!

Then one I was looking at is the '540 liter new'... One down from the top left if that makes any sense?

 

Yep.. that is a stunning set up.

There is nothing more beautiful than a neatly aquascaped, well laid out, planted tank. Sometimes the tanks where you just chuck a whole bunch of dirrerent plants in (like mine) don't even compare to the best of the best out there. I've noticed that some of the best tanks only have 3 or 4 types of plants, but well spaced, and a lot of it!

I would assume that this tank is probably running a fairly expensive undergravel substrate. (I think the PFP with Chemicult will be suitable?). Probably running on a sump for better filtration. By no doubt that tank has top of the range lighting (possibly metal halides) a pressurized system, and some very fancy work on the fertilizing!

 

Thanks for putting up the photo ACE

I just think that tank is something else!

 

Sounds like growlux lamps. They are very good for plant growth, in fact some of the best. The phosphor they use are specifically designed to peak in the PAM range.
If you do not mind the pink,purple haze I do not see why you would bother with other tubes.
Like Zoom said a lot of people do not like the look they give and therefore mix them with 10,000K tubes.

Check this link, it explains everything you want to know.

http://www.americanaquariumproducts...._Lighting.html

 

Yep... that's the article I'm tryig to wade through at the moment. it get's VERY intense with the technical term. We need someone to write a "aquarium lighting for dummies 2010" book.

 

yes, I have had the grolux lamps, they are very good, and the pink is not even that bright