Lighting for a 650l tank

Hi everyone,

I'll be setting up a 650l (180cm x 60cm x 60cm) planted tank soon. It will be a low tech tank (meaning that I'll have a rich substrate, but no CO2 injection).
My question is on the lighting required for this tank. I'm aiming for 2W per gallon (650l = ~170g), but that sounds like a lot of lights to fit under the hood. I've been reading a lot about T5HO lights. Do you recommend these? Are they available in SA?

Thanks for your help!

Gordon

 

Been looking at what is needed for 600 mm deep tanks - I have more or less the same take on low tech - no CO2 ... T2s (not widely used in Aquariums in SA) have peeked my interest .. keen to see what the others reply.

 

You can go for 80watt T5s. Osram makes a 2x tube unit for around R300. You will just have to wire it up yourself

 

Thanks Henk.
So you'd recommend I get 2 of those units? That'd be 320W in total - about right!
I'll do some reading up them!

 

Henk you talking about these ?

Osram Lumilux 1449mm T5 Fluorescent Tube 80W
Triphosphor 880 8000K Skywhite
Colour rendering 85% accurate
16mm Diameter 80 Watt High Output FQ
20K Hrs Life Very White 8000K Temperature

.

 

Or you can just do 2 banks of 39w, they just over 900mm long.

Gordon, your profile doesn't mention where you are from?

8000k is very white, makes the tank look great but growth on plants could be better with other tubes

 

I wasnt talking about the actual tubes FFish - is was talking about the electronic ballasts - but yes those are the tubes that would put on it.

As Neil said the other option is to go for bansk of 39 watt (3ft) tubes. This will give you better coverage of light in the tank as well as more control over the start up rate. I would start off with 8X 39 watt (4 per side) and see how the plants react to that. Also remember to invest in GOOD reflectors - they can up your light out put by upto 40%

 

Sorry - I'm from Durban - will update my profile.

I'm confused, Neilh - "2 banks of 39W"... would that be 39W x 4? That's only 156W - which would only be 1 watt per gallon...

aaahhh - posted before seeing your reply, Henk.
Thanks - you've cleared that up. Still sounds like a lot of tubes to fit under the hood (I'm used to my 100l tank with 2 tubes).

 

i have 12 4ft T5's under a 60cm wide hood

 

Henk is spot on. Make sure you get reflectors, they make a massive difference in light output. For good cheap tubes, try get to Lamphouse, I think they have a Durban branch.

4 tubes over a 600 deep tank isn't that much, but I guess it depends on whats plants you'll be keeping

 

Thanks for all your help guys!
Gotta run now - going to buy the wood for a stand. First things first

 

also paint the inside of the hood with either a high gloss white paint of a silver mirror finish

 

wood only....consider sqaure tubing reinforcing of the stand, or build a stand out of sqaure tubing and clad with wood

 

Sorry for the noob question but what are reflectors and what is their purpose?

 

reflectors are like shiny materials,paints etc that reflect the light back onto the tank

 

oh okay,thanks.

 

I clad my canopy inside with "Extra Heavy Duty Tinfoil",it is cheap and works like a charm.

 

no - you only get something like 5% throw back... proper reflectors are designed not to fragment the light beams

 

Would mirrors not work well for reflectors?

 

no - the glass fragments light alomost completely