Lightning question help!

2980 Views 14 Replies 4 Participants Last post by plantWestern, Dec 23, 2021

NYRkorey

Discussion Starter · Nov 18, 2021

So I have a 6 foot 150 gallon planted tank. The plants are doing well but I'm a bit concerned my light still isn't strong enough. I run 2 fluval fresh and plant light 6500k 46 watts. I was wondering if I should upgrade my light and does anyone have any recommendations for better lights? I tend to believe since its a big tank my light isn't reaching the bottom. My baby tears seem to melt everytime any my cabomba plant , healthy on top you can tell isn't getting much light to the bottom since its just seem at the bottom. My ferts and water parameters are perfect. I think my light isn't strong enough. So does anyone have any recommendations for light with a 150 gallon tank? I was thinking of keeping the same brand light but getting the bigger wattage one. Any help would be great!

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mistergreen

· #2 · Nov 18, 2021

How tall is your tank? And do you have glass covers? I suspect you need 60+watts of LED lights for a tank that big. You can try adding good-looking LED floodlights. You can target a section of the tank and not have the whole tank fully lighted.

NYRkorey

Discussion Starter · #3 · Nov 18, 2021

Its 72-18-28. I was looking at getting this

www.amazon.com

Amazon.com : Beamswork DA FSPEC LED Aquarium Light Pent Freshwater (180cm - 72") : Pet Supplies

Amazon.com : Beamswork DA FSPEC LED Aquarium Light Pent Freshwater (180cm - 72") : Pet Supplies

www.amazon.com

Since its about 90+ watts and can cover the length of my tank so I may only need one, and I only have one cover on there right now which is the middle glass cover since I have no plants in the middle and I need that glass one to hold my fluval light up since I run 2 one on thr left side one on the right since they aren't long enough to cover the full tank.. but I also saw these a but pricey but ide need two but heard these work well too

www.bulkreefsupply.com

A360W-E Tuna Sun LED Aquarium Light (Wide Angle) - Kessil (DISCONTINUED)

Shine a little light on your freshwater tank or refugium with the controllable A360WE Tuna Sun LED Light from Kessil. Kessil has put years of research into their LEDs creating a Dense Matrix LEd which tightly packs the LEDs onto one chip with numerous colors and numerous wavelengths of light -...

www.bulkreefsupply.com

Again any thoughts would be aweosme.

mistergreen

· #4 · Nov 18, 2021

I would buy one that you can dim in case it's too much light. I don't think you need to break the bank to buy lights.

NYRkorey

Discussion Starter · #5 · Nov 18, 2021

Thats what I was leaning toward because they grow fine, I just need a little bit more power to reach the bottom to keep everything healthy. Would one you think be enough? Only reason I have 2 now is bc one won't reach across the whole tank and its only 40 watts so it's kinda weak I never realized it was that weak, so I think one should be ok?

mistergreen

· #6 · Nov 18, 2021

I’m not sure. It would be helpful if the light listed their PAR data. That’s how Bright it is. Some of them do list the PAR. Ideally, the PAR to your substrate should be 50-70 for something like baby tears. You can borrow a PAR meter to measure how much light you have.

NYRkorey

Discussion Starter · #7 · Nov 18, 2021

This is what I found on the website for them the light we were talking about

PAR: 96 @ 12-inch depth (under a 24″ fixture)
Ideal for: fish, medium-high light plants
Fixture sizes: 72 inches (12-72″ available)
For tanks: (up to 210 gallons)
LEDs: 102x 10000K, 32x Actinic 460nm, 22x Red 620nm, 26x Green 520nm
Modes: Day/night
Wattage: 182 x 0.5W = 91 watts total

mistergreen

· #8 · Nov 18, 2021

That sounds good. A glass cover should help to reduce the PAR by 10-20% if you're getting too many algae.

NYRkorey

Discussion Starter · #9 · Nov 18, 2021

Awesome!! Thanks a bunch for this help! Much much appreciated

mistergreen

· #10 · Nov 19, 2021

Which version of the fluval light do you have?
it looks like version 3.0 has plenty of PAR.

modestfish.com

Fluval Plant 3.0 LED Light PAR Tested & Reviewed 2023

I bought the Fluval Plant 3.0 Spectrum LED lighting kit, par tested it, reviewed, and compared it to 4 other LED lights to see how good it really is.

modestfish.com

NYRkorey

Discussion Starter · #11 · Nov 19, 2021 (Edited)

I have the 6500 46 watt 3.0, 2x of them one for the left one for the right.. and I saw that video but I also saw another video that aquarium co op did if you can find that one.. and the guy Cory tested the PAR on a 125 and at the bottom was only 27 pars

Skip to like 2 minutes in

mistergreen

· #12 · Nov 19, 2021

Ah, 27 PAR is quite low.

NYRkorey

Discussion Starter · #13 · Nov 19, 2021

Right so idk how that guy in the other video was getting those numbers, bc I saw that and was like no way. He must of been using a real small tank. 3.0 had a lower par then the old 2.0 was is crazy

Don't get me wrong fluval makes great lights but I don't think they are meant for big tanks. Small tanks im sure they are amazing

Allexx46

· #14 · Nov 25, 2021

I use the generic KZKR on my 60" long tank because they have units that are actually 60". They have them up to 78" which. I vary the daylength to control algae. I am just noticing they have a new version that has a controller to dim and do special effects like sunrise sunset effects. Amazon.com

plantWestern

· #15 · Dec 23, 2021

mistergreen said:
I would buy one that you can dim in case it's too much light. I don't think you need to break the bank to buy lights.

I found that buying dimming lights were a life saver..literally!! whatever your plant needs, it can get!

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