Dimming lighting with Aluminium Foil/Electrical tape?

[serbusfish]

I have a Juwel Rio 125 aquarium with the standard T5 lighting and I feel it is too bright so I want to try dimming it a little. Ive read that you can use aluminium foil or electrical tape, but im just worried about the heat given off by the bulbs... can anyone confirm these would be safe to use, and if not what other methods would work? (Please dont suggest floating plants )

[funkman262]

Can you explain what you're doing with the aluminum foil or electrical tape? Depending on your filter (this isn't a great idea when using HOB) you can get some floating plants. They'll reduce the light going to the rest of the tank and they'll also consume a lot of nutrients making the tank healthier for fish.

[Goes to 11!]

I have a Juwel Rio 125 aquarium with the standard T5 lighting and I feel it is too bright so I want to try dimming it a little.

Too bright for what? Are you having algae issues

can anyone confirm these would be safe to use

Again, Safe for what? You give us absolutely no idea what you are doing with them so there's no way to answer that...

The easiest way to lower its intensity is to make it farther from the substrate, It decreases quickly with increased distance [Google: 'Inverse square law'].

[serbusfish]

Can you explain what you're doing with the aluminum foil or electrical tape? Depending on your filter (this isn't a great idea when using HOB) you can get some floating plants. They'll reduce the light going to the rest of the tank and they'll also consume a lot of nutrients making the tank healthier for fish.

I did mention not to suggest floating plants....

But no I have an external filter with the output just under the waters surface, and this creates a lot of surface movement (I have to turn the filter off when I feed the fish) so floating plants would just get swept around the tank.

I was going to simply either tape up sections of the bulbs or cut large sections of aluminium foil and secure them in place so they blocked out some of the light going into the tank.

Too bright for what? Are you having algae issues

They make the aquarium too bright for my tastes + some of my species prefer slightly subdued lighting with shady spots.

[Goes to 11!]

Do not tape the bulbs .

Personally, I wouldn't use aluminum foil either

What species? Wilds? What plants do you have to provide shade atm?

BTW Floating plants in a large enough group would simply get swept to the far corner and stay there for the most part. They don't whirlpool.

Some picS would really help here.

[Aeonflame]

Why not just place a sheet of opaque plastic under the lights?

[funkman262]

I did mention not to suggest floating plants....

Wow, I apologize. I normally don't miss stuff like that lol

[serbusfish]

Do not tape the bulbs .

Personally, I wouldn't use aluminum foil either

What species? Wilds? What plants do you have to provide shade atm?

BTW Floating plants in a large enough group would simply get swept to the far corner and stay there for the most part. They don't whirlpool.

Some picS would really help here.

Tank is brighter in real life, my phone cam dimmed the picture a bit.



Species I have atm that like dim lighting are the Pentazona Barbs and the Pearl Gourami, but as I mentioned I also wanted to dim them slightly to suit my own tastes, something like this video would be fantastic:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=KT9CVjqjy6Y

[serbusfish]

Why not just place a sheet of opaque plastic under the lights?

I Could do, but that would dim the entire thing, using foil or tape i could dim certain sections.

Wow, I apologize. I normally don't miss stuff like that lol

Thats ok

[madagascariensis]

Cover your entire tank with a couple of layers of mosquito net. Then you will have the light uniformly dim and not have random bright and dark sports in your tank.