I have just purchased a new (second hand) light fitting. I will pick it up this afternoon. In my experience, I always need new tubes when I buy a second-hand fitting - because even when the seller says the tubes are "nearly new" it never turns out that way! :lol:

Anyway, this new fitting gives me an opportunity to rearrange my lighting and maybe achieve a more optimal outcome for my existing plants, or a different effect for my tank, or a chance to grow different plants to what I currently have. I would appreciate your thoughts on what is possible and ideas on what I could do.

Existing lights:

1 x 4 foot double tube fitting, containing 2 x 40 watt tubes. Both are Phillips "cool daylight" cheap tubes from Bunnings.

1 x 4 foot single tube fitting, containing 1 x 30 watt "cool daylight" tube.

Yes it's true, both fittings are 4 ft long but one holds 40 watt tubes and the other holds 30 watt tubes. Different brands of fittings.

I have both lights on a timer to come on at 8:00am and go off at 8:30pm.

New (second hand) light:

1 x 4 foot double tube fitting, capable of holding 2 x 30 watt tubes.

The obvious thing to do would be to put daylight tubes in all the fittings and keep them all on the existing timer, giving me 170 watts of light for 12.5 hours a day (up from the existing 110 watts).

Another possibility is that I could put the two double fittings on my existing timer, giving me 140 watts of light for 12.5 hours a day. Then I could get a bluish/moonlight kind of tube for the single tube fitting, and set it to go off a bit later than the others. This would give me a kind of twilight time in the evening to watch the fish, and a transition from light to dark rather than a sudden change.

Any other thoughts?

By the way, here's my tank:

The distance from the lights to the bottom of the tank is 450mm.

I currently have Java fern, Amazon swords & ambulia, all of which seem to grow fine in there.

I have a vague idea that I might like to grow some kind of ground cover in the front... hairgrass? Something else? But I'm aware my lighting might not be up to it so I'm not especially bothered.

Hi nice tank ---i would use glossostigma(2-10cm) for the front and if it doent start growing within 2 weeks then put in stronger lighting,thats the cheapest way around it.

well thats my pennies worth

cheers Don

Hi nice tank ---i would use glossostigma(2-10cm) for the front and if it doent start growing within 2 weeks then put in stronger lighting,thats the cheapest way around it.

well thats my pennies worth

cheers Don

Thanks Don. Even with full-power tubes in all my fittings the maximum I could get on this tank would be 170 watts. would that be enough to grow glosso? A lovely planted glosso lawn certainly does take my fancy.

You should have enough light to have a go at some of the high light plants like glosso. You can but try and see. plant it in small clumps so it gets as much light as possible and try and get stuff that has been grown submersed because it would be a big shock otherwise at this time of year. Other plants that would possibly do OK would be Sagittaria microfolia, Echinodorus tenellus tenellus, E. tenellus latifolius, E. tenellus parvula or hairgrass particularly if you can get the shorter variety.

Thanks Alan. I will look around and see what I can find. :bounce:

I picked up the fitting this afternoon and sure enough the perspex cover was all yellow and cracked, so I just removed it and threw it away. The light will just sit straight on the top glass of the tank so I hope it will be ok. One of the tubes doesn't work at all and the other has dark rings around the ends. So later this week I'll be off to Bunnings to get myself some more cool daylight tubes. I presume they're still the best spectrum? (6500K I think.)

As far as Glosso goes, if Evil_Elmo can do it with a 60cm tall tank, with only 48w of light. Then so long as we factor in at least a few marks for his incredible skills, then you should be able to achieve it with 150w+/- of light in a 45cm tall tank.

Evil_Elmo's Project Lido

As far as Glosso goes, if Evil_Elmo can do it with a 60cm tall tank, with only 48w of light. Then so long as we factor in at least a few marks for his incredible skills, then you should be able to achieve it with 150w+/- of light in a 45cm tall tank.

Evil_Elmo's Project Lido

LOL good point Romeo! I will go back and look at that thread and get inspired by the lovely photos

As far as Glosso goes, if Evil_Elmo can do it with a 60cm tall tank, with only 48w of light. Then so long as we factor in at least a few marks for his incredible skills, then you should be able to achieve it with 150w+/- of light in a 45cm tall tank.

Evil_Elmo's Project Lido

ah. good point, but that was 48W of High output T5 lighting.

I don't know about 6500k lighting as I haven't used it for a while. Many swear by them and they are cheap. I use cool white and growlux type tubes. At the moment I have thrown in a blue one to see what happens (plants are emersed and are now throwing runners).