[cturner]

Stats:
90 gallon 48" long
Eco-complete substrate
Root tab ferts and once a week after a water change Seachem Iron, Florish & excel
I couldn't tell you specific plants that I have but here's a picture.

Right now I have a coralife 96 watt light fixture. I don't want to get into CO2 right now. Here's the lights I was looking at....
2 of these in one hood or http://www.ahsupply.com/96watt.htm
4 of these (the 55w) in one hood http://www.ahsupply.com/36-55w.htm

Also what would you recommend for bulbs?? 6700K or 10000K??
Do you think I will have too much light and I'll have to get CO2 sooner than later?

I'm at your mercy, please help!rayer:

 

[Seattle_Aquarist]

Hi cturner,

Nice tank! Good choice on the AH Supply kits, I've had one for several months now and it is great. In fact, it was so good I bought another kit for a new tank that I am setting up.

Either setup would probably work well. Depending on your tank dimensions, I think the 4 X 55 would probably give you better light coverage with fewer possibilities of dark areas or corners. Keep in mind that the AHS reflectors are very efficient. Call or e-mail Kim at AHS, give him your tank dimensions and what you would like to do (including your CO2 preference, and ask his opinion. I'm sure he will help steer you in the right direction. I have talked with him several times and he is very knowledgeable and helpful.

I am using a 1 X 96 kit with the 6700K bulb over a 45 gallon tall (24" deep) and use pressurized CO2 and can grow just about anything including HC! Hope this helps, good luck!

 

[cturner]

Okay so I got my Dr. Foster & Smith magazine today and I found this....

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3578+3733+12772&pcatid=12772

I was looking at the 48" 216 watt.

So in your opinions what would be better? T5's or CF's?? I would be looking at the same wattage output. I would lose the actinic bulbs and get 2 10000K to put in place of the actinic.

Please give me your opinions!

 

[hoppycalif]

Once you get up around 2 watts per gallon or more, especially with T5 bulbs, you need CO2 and a complete fertilizing program to avoid having a lot of algae. That is a different game from what you are playing with the single 96 watt PC fixture.

 

[MatPat]

I would agree with Hoppy, if you choose the 216w T-5 fixture you will need some sort of carbon supplementation, preferably CO2. However, with T-5s, I think that carbon supplementation is actually needed at closer to the 1.5wpg range.

 

[hoppycalif]

I would agree with Hoppy, if you choose the 216w T-5 fixture you will need some sort of carbon supplementation, preferably CO2. However, with T-5s, I think that carbon supplementation is actually needed at closer to the 1.5wpg range.

Yes, that is my understanding too. Typical T5 fixtures seem to give at least 50% more light than comparable wattage PC fixtures.

 

[Left C]

If you decide to go with 96w PC lighting, check out these square pin 8800K bulbs for $26.33.
http://www.seaquestmarine.com/96w_8800K_Power_Compact_Bulb_p/cslpc_880096w.htm

Here's more PC's. There's even 65w square pin 8800K PC's too: http://www.seaquestmarine.com/Power_Compact_Bulbs_s/91.htm

 

[TortoiseBoy]

Hi cturner,
I agree with all of the folks in this thread. If you get that much light, regular fertilization and CO2 in some form will become almost necessary (they were necessary for me, anyway). I have a 90 (24" tall, right?) and I started with around 220 watts (AHSupply 4x55watt Bright Kits - Great lights!) but I still couldn't grow any foreground "lawn" plants, so I added even more light. I really think it depends on what you want to accomplish as to how much light you need. In my opinion, your tank looks great the way it is and you are growing some nice plants already. You also have lots more money in your pocket than you will as you drift closer to the "high tech" solutions ;-)

Best of luck,

TB

 

[cturner]

I wanted to update everyone on what I decided to do. My husband and I went to our LFS which happens to be That Fish Place. We were looking around picking up some essentials and they had the Nova T5 light on sale, the same one as Dr. Foster & Smith but much cheaper plus I had a coupon. So we bought it. I still have my Coralife on the tank but only turn the Nova light on for 4 hours a day. I've also bumped up my ferts to everyother day. Iron, Trace, nitrogen, excel, flourish and phosphate.

So what do you think?? Do you think I'll need more or less ferts? Should I drop the T5's back to 2 hrs?

 

[thefishmanlives]

Do yourself a favor and get hte pressurized co2. Honestly you would be better off spending the money on a co2 setup then more lighting even with low lighting. They are very affordable if you look around online and not complicated at all. Will help you control algae much better and give you much better growth even with the single bulb you have. I think you may have algae problems without the co2 even with a burst of higher lighting.

 

[PlanTanks]

yes buying a c02 tank and stuff isnt really that expensive i bought a couple of those co2 stuff, where you mix the yeast and sugar and it was annoying, and it cost bout 20-30 for each, i ended up buying a 5lb co2 tank from airgas, and a co2 regulator from dr foster smith, which totaled about 250? but its so much easier now, the tank last a couple months, think like 4-5? and its only like 13 to refill

 

[4f1hmi]

hi turner! Like you I got my 96 watt 6700k from ah lighting. Although my tank is only 12 inches deep and 36"long, 16"wide seems it got ample lighting. I also made my own hood of semi recycled material except for the wood cornice. Here's some of the pics i took while building it.

Since this is still a new tank, Im still struggling to lower hardness by frequent water changes.

 

[4f1hmi]

seems the link did not attach
http://www.slide.com/mscd?pxcid=dSB...Hl4Lzdw31Jtnmv2tt4QI49lUQXMYrm1N&nc=1&pxciid=