Lighting Suggestions ...

[A340]

Hey Everybody!

I'm getting rid of my old black, plastic canopy on my 29g within the next month. I picked up a brand new hinged glass top for $19 CAD at Petcetera today (good deal or what? :19: ).

Anyway, I'm looking for a new lighting system for it. Any suggestions on makes/models? It's for a planted tank, so it needs a bit of juice and intergrated lunar lights would be a bonus.

Thanks in advance!

[Rue]

...can't help you there too much...it's not a huge tank so I imagine most standard plant lights would do the trick...

Post a before and after picture for me!

[Chrona]

Are you planning to go high tech (ie adding CO2 and dosing dry ferts) or low tech? Also what kind of budget?

[Lady Hobbs]

Why do you want lunar lights for a planted tank? BigAl's has lots of lights, too, but I would look for planted tank lights and not those with lunars.

[Chrona]

Just for looks after lights out I'd imagine.

[A340]

Hey everybody, I had to drive my mom up to Sorrento/Blind Bay today, so I just got back in.

I found a few nice little pet stores on the way, so I stopped in to see what they have (always looking for pet stores when travelling, damn this hobby :ezpi_wink1: )

Anyway, currently I have your standard black canopy with a single bulb (power glo 1x15w) and 2 Marina lunar lights that I fit in. However, as most of us in fish keeping, are always looking out for where and how we can spend our money .... lol! As I mentioned, I picked up a glass top yesterday, and am now looking for a nice light fixture. The reason why I asked about the lunar lights is because I'd like to have them built in to reduce the cluter around the tank.

I saw a Coralife with 2x65w compact fluorescent and the built in lunar lights for $299, a bit pricey, so I'm wondering if anyone has any recommandations for cheaper. They also had the T5 Glo's (Hagen/Marina?) for about $150 with 2x24w bulbs but I'd have to add the lunar lights myself.

Chrona, I do have a CO2 system (the little Nutrafin package :19: ) and have flourite for substrate. The plants are currently doing pretty good, but I'm sure could do better with a better light package. But it's mainly for appearance purposes.

[Chrona]

Hey everybody, I had to drive my mom up to Sorrento/Blind Bay today, so I just got back in.

I found a few nice little pet stores on the way, so I stopped in to see what they have (always looking for pet stores when travelling, damn this hobby :ezpi_wink1: )

Anyway, currently I have your standard black canopy with a single bulb (power glo 1x15w) and 2 Marina lunar lights that I fit in. However, as most of us in fish keeping, are always looking out for where and how we can spend our money .... lol! As I mentioned, I picked up a glass top yesterday, and am now looking for a nice light fixture. The reason why I asked about the lunar lights is because I'd like to have them built in to reduce the cluter around the tank.

I saw a Coralife with 2x65w compact fluorescent and the built in lunar lights for $299, a bit pricey, so I'm wondering if anyone has any recommandations for cheaper. They also had the T5 Glo's (Hagen/Marina?) for about $150 with 2x24w bulbs but I'd have to add the lunar lights myself.

Chrona, I do have a CO2 system (the little Nutrafin package :19: ) and have flourite for substrate. The plants are currently doing pretty good, but I'm sure could do better with a better light package. But it's mainly for appearance purposes.

I would look for about 60-70 watts of compact fluorescent lighting. 29g is 30 inches long right? Finding a fixture of that size is a little annoying though.

And I would highly recommend upgrading your CO2 if you are going for medium light or so, as the nutrafin is intended for small tanks. It says for up to 20g, but that is really a stretch, so you will want a dual soda bottle DIY setup with an airstone (or ideally a glass diffuser) setup

[A340]

I would look for about 60-70 watts of compact fluorescent lighting. 29g is 30 inches long right? Finding a fixture of that size is a little annoying though.

And I would highly recommend upgrading your CO2 if you are going for medium light or so, as the nutrafin is intended for small tanks. It says for up to 20g, but that is really a stretch, so you will want a dual soda bottle DIY setup with an airstone (or ideally a glass diffuser) setup
I figured the T5 GLO setup wasn't enough, that's why I didn't pick it up right away. The length is 30 inches, but a 24 inch bulb/fixture will fill fit with extentsion brackets in the most kits, so that's not much of a problem.

In regards to the CO2 system, an upgrade is something I'm looking at in the next few weeks. I was thinking about adding a second Nutrafin system, but I've been looking in the DIY forum for a nice set up, so I'll see which way I'm going to go with that.

I'll post some pics in a few minutes to give you an idea of what it's looking like....

[A340]

.... OK, here is my 29g when I had my Malawi's in it (you can see why I had to get rid of them) way to big for their home ....

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This is what it looks like now ...

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... a "construciton site" in progress, lol!

And, just for the heck of it, my 10g "Fantasy Tank" ...

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... I'm still figuring out what to put in there.