Ascensive

i need to hear or read or see some examples of lighting a 46 gallon bowfront tank.

the tank can come with a single florescent hood, but i know for a planted tank ill need more? i do not want to have co2, i may do it way down the line, but i have seen enough hugely densely planted tanks going without co2, i would rather run that. some use power compact, some compact florescent, some regular florescent, but i would like to see what you guys have of each type...well maybe not the compact florescents. im not looking to have the sun sitting on top of my tank so the fish have no where to get shade, or want to be in the shade the whole time, but i want the light to be good enough to make the plants grow.
can you guys give me examples of what lighting you have going for your planted 46 gallon bowfront aqauriums?
thanks for your time.
jAy

Steve Pituch

hi Jay,

Did your tank come with a 36 inch bulb? If it did I would look for a double 36 inch light enclosure. I think the bulbs are 30 Watts so you would have about 3 x 30 W = 90 W or 2 Watts per gallon. At that intensity you wouldn't need CO2. I think the All-Glass 46 G tank comes with a glass top.

Read Tom Barr's lecture here on the APC about low light tanks. It should work out nice with 90 W.

Steve Pituch

Justin Fournier

I second Steve's recommendation. All glass sells a Tripple tube 36" fixture. One ZooMed UltraSun, one FloraSun and one ReefSun would give you a very broad range of spectrum. Some for the plants, a good CRI and a little blue to hilight the color of the fish.

You could use many other bulb combos, but it comes down to personal preference.

Ascensive

thanks for the response..ill read that.
now what about power compacts. how many lights would i need for that. and with lower lighting, would i be limited the amount of different types of plants i can have greatly, or just slowing down the growth rate of the plants with lower light?

thanks for the response.
jAy
a/m/p

yeah, the aga bowfronts come with glass tops.

Justin Fournier

I would go with the 36" Coralife Aqualight with one 96W 6700K bulb, and consider C02. Not much else in choice in CF really.

dennis

Also, All glass makes a CF hood for their tanks. The 36" comes with 2-55watt GE 9325K bulbs for a total of 110 watts. It is around $110 and I have seen them advertised in Pet Solutions for about that price. Just another suggestion

Error

I have this exact same tank so I know the ins and outs of lighting it.

I started off with the standard strip, and then I moved to the triple tube 90w strip. This became problematic when I had a very difficult time finding 36" T8 bulbs in anything other than warm white at the hardware store. I had to locate an electrical supplier, and I ended up with 2 cool whites (they were like $1.60 each), and a Sylvania Gro-lux (about $9.00). Plant growth was spectacular, since my SOIL substrate was brand-new and full of good stuff (changing it out soon). During this time I also discovered that I could fit an 18" strip on the front panel of the glass top (the curved part that you lift up when you feed). I put a 5500k bulb in it to balance out the color.

This past Christmas I got a 192 watt PC strip. This thing is heavy-duty; it's fan-cooled and has two switches and all that jazz. Problem was it came with 2 10000k bulbs, and this has resulted in another P.I.T.A. as to where to get non-reef 96 watt bulbs. Spectrum is very limited in this size, and the stores charge $50+ for EACH ONE. You can't get the 9325k or 5500k or anything like them, really. Your options (at the most) with this setup are 10000, 6700, 8800 and actinic.

I think I have heard of a PC strip of 36" that takes two 55w bulbs. This may be your best bet.

Right now I have 1 96w 10000k, a 96w 6700k, and a double bulb 18" strip with a GE full spectrum and a Sylvania Gro-lux in it. That's 222 watts=(taking into account the displacement of the substrate) ~5.5 wpg. That's enough to grow most anything, but I REALLY need to get ahold of a pressurized CO2 system soon.

If you need any help PM me and I can tell you anything you need to know about lighting these darn things.