Proper Wattage for Aquariums - Page 2 - Lighting

John N. · 12-06-2006, 05:10 PM

Great points Niko. It is hard to take a snapshot tank and say that's how it's going to work for everyone at all points in time. Definately ideas to be considered.

Eklikewhoa, with 96 watts over your 20 H gallon tank how long is your photo period and what fixture(s) and reflectors are you using to the 96 watts? Beautiful tank by the way too!

-John N.

eklikewhoa · 12-06-2006, 07:11 PM

Oops, new I forgot something.

96w 6700k quad bulb coralife fixture on coralife legs
Open top tank
Photoperiod of 8hrs

Thanks for the comment john!

ruki · 12-08-2006, 04:30 PM

A couple data points.

I have an "insane" light level tank using 4 of the 6 bulbs of a 48 inch Tek Light fixture over a 55 gallon tank. It's 4 watts/gallon, but with the reflector it's equivilant to more than 6 watts/gallon from lamps with lesser reflectors.

It's a new tank, in that it's not stable yet, so I can't give good figures. Also have some algae bothering some plants I picked up a store that were contaminated with it. Need to put some fish in the tank to see if they will clean it up for me.

Just some very amusing observations for now:

Java fern adapts better to this high light than Bacopa carolina, Egeria densa and Mayaca. But the Potamageton gayi really likes it that bright. (The others had a burnt look to their leaves.) I may also just not be giving them enough nutrients for all the light they are getting.

Above it, I have two 20H's side by side with a 40 watt Grow Lux and 32 watt Octatron 6500K. Does really well for the anubias/crypt propagation tank and the low-maintenance medium light tank with misc plants.

As far as coming up with an index, I'll rephrase what I read on a posting saved at the crypt:

* Get a light meter that measures in lux and put over it a photographic filter that notches out green and gets rid of all infrared. (Is there a photographer in the house?!?) This would give us a good number that multiple people could do. Put the thing inside an empty aquarium and make measurements with different lights. (Somehow enclose the thing and make measurements in one filled with water.) This would not perfect, but this would be a much better estimate than what we have now.

ruki · 01-01-2007, 09:15 AM

Here's where I originally saw the photographic filter over a light meter idea, it's from 1998:

Units of PAR

Quote:

For final measurements and to compare results, as George suggests, I plan to
use a filter over a standard cell (as found in a Lux meter) that is designed
to allow photography in a fluorescent-lighted room with daylight film. That
pinkish/purple filter will give comparison numbers a bit more meaningful for
plant growth, I think.

For that, lux sucks, as does lumens. PAR is actually only somewhat better.
My filter will basically measure relative PAR with a lux meter, even with
different lamp spectra, by de-emphasizing the green part, which most plants
reflect away, anyway.

Wright

Wright Huntley, Fremont CA, USA, 510 612-1467

Nixe · 01-08-2007, 07:12 AM

Hello (my first post)!

My tank is 80 gallon, 20" tall, 10 h lighting period and 136 W T8 + reflectors.

I grow glosso fast and absolutely horizontally.

How's this correlating with the figures in the first post, I wonder.

.Nixe

gibmaker · 01-08-2007, 07:49 AM

I have a 125 gal discus tank with 440 watts of cf on top, I use diy co2 reactors and diffusers, and I have grown glossostigma in my tank very well, It just about all died from an algae bloom, that was when I first started, as far as anything else, you name it and I can grow it I am sure of this.

TXaviator · 05-02-2007, 04:46 PM

uhhhh the only thing i am gathering so far is "buy as many watts as you can possibly afford"

:-\

am i wrong on that?

Laith · 05-02-2007, 10:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TXaviator

uhhhh the only thing i am gathering so far is "buy as many watts as you can possibly afford"

:-\

am i wrong on that?

I would answer yes.

While very high lighting (ie 4wpg+) is certainly doable, IMO it requires a certain level of experience and is definitely not an absolute requirement for a successful healthy plant tank.

You can grow pretty much anything with 2.5-3.5wpg of good lighting.

My comments relate to tanks larger than say 40l (10g). For smaller tanks more wpg is required.

Supercoley1 · 10-03-2007, 07:10 PM

I would've lowered the minimum level in the last post. I get very good and colourful growth under 1.8WPG using T5 HO lights. Maybe the WPG (that has already been said is not so much use anymore) is for T8s and that 1.8WPG = more in comparison to both PC and T8 (although PC seems to give more intense light instead of spread light)

Much better than when I had 2.5WPG of compact flourescents!!!!

In fact I would often have centre of the tank staghorn growing on the plants directly underneath the CF lights whereas now I think the better spread of light from the HOT5 seems to be better as this phenomenon has disappeared (it never appeared when I used T8s only when I used PCs!!!!)

Andy

Chuppy · 10-03-2007, 07:26 PM

Wow if that is the ruling... my tank is waaay too bright then.... 20gal 55w?? Mine is 107 Watts mind you

lol