A question for you fine folk in fish tank land. :-?

Is it important to have a double tubed light over my tropical tank, or can I get away with a single tube, providing i use the right one?

The tank is 1200 long if thats any help.

If you are just after fish then one will be fine, If you want to grow plants you will need plenty more lighting and is dependent on how deep the tank is and how wide (from front to back) the length you just get that leangthed set so it isnt so much of a concern

Good luck

Daniel N

Thanks Dan,

Yeah I guess I should have put all the dimensions.... :oops: 1220x455x600

It's strange how many different comments or ideas you get from retailers, i guess they are out to make as much as they can... :evil: Some say one tube is fine, others take you to a $1200.00 light as say this is perfect for what you need...yeah right get a life, my car ain't even worhth that much.

So it seems like a twin tube is what it's gunna have to be. I'm so far out of touch with all this, will it pay to use different tubes? There seems to be so many listed now.

Cheers Lindsay R

Norwester I have only just set up my tropical tank 1200 x 450 x 450 and I am using 2 tubes. one white for plants and one red for colour. and using 4ft tubes x 40 watts each

currently Hollywoods in Auckland is having a sale, so I got mine for $130 including tubes.

The staff did recommend me getting power glo tubes at $35 each which they said are really good so I told them I will once the ones with the light go.

So bright it lights up my living room so saving on power. :lol:

Cheers Wok,

Hollywood Fish were always pretty good when I lived up there as well. I'll give them a bell & see how I go.

:lol:

YEs...i use a double tube light. One for growing and the other is for colour. 1200 dollars! thats for hardout people with plants.

i would think a single bulb is fine!, my freind mike uses a single bulb in his four foot light, and he has to make cuttings of his plants every 3 days as they grow out of the water! i think twin bulb is over kill.

I use a twin bulb one bulb is specially for fish colour enchancement and the other is for growing them plants. I us a two foot light for a two foot tank.

I use a single tube light on both my 3 foot tank and on my 500x400x550

I have no probs with low light, all my plants grow fine, I too think a double tube light is overkill, but obviuosly the deeper the tank then the stronger the light needs to be.

B

ive got a single bulb "ocean free" light on one of my 2 foots, and not only does it make the fish look stunning but i have the same problem with my plants either planketing the floor or growing out of the tank, which to be honest isnt a problem at all infact it helps me make my othere tanks look "pretty" as i prefer heavily planted tanks!

but everyone to there own!

Cheers Shae

Thanks for all the answers people...

If i'm to go with the single tube option, should I use a particular tube..i.e growing or colour?? :-?

its up to you, plants r still gonna grow under a colour bulb! and that way your fish look cool to!

Cheers Shae

Hmmm ok...so if i just use a singular tube light would it need less power to generate (im talking about all general single tubes). If so im going to do that . Thank you guys

My 4ft tropical has 2 double fittings with bright white (or daylight) fluorescents only. I do not buy fancy colour tubes.

Dont go around buying special "Plant Gro" bulbs, they might be better than normal 6500k ones, but only marginally. I have 2 x Resun light hoods, and they are running wiht the bundled light bulb, and my plants are growing like crazy. Dont spend $50 on something that is marginally better. I am yet to see a BIG difference between specialized tubes and normal tubes.

As breakaway said philips do a 6500k tube and this easaly good enough for freshwater plants, In my tank I have Two 10,000k and One 6500k. My tank & hood came with 1 10000k and 2 6500k but as i already had a 10000k i thought i mias well use this expencive bulbe up. I do like to look of the 10,000k it is a brighter white where as the 6,500k is more of a green white but I wouldnt say it is worth 4-5 times the price, Also algea only prospers under the extreme light wavelengths (from what I have read) this means that algea growth wil be worst under the blue and red lights (although another book I read said that it is the red light and the further you go toward the blue scale to less algea can live) under both the 6500k and 10,000k lights i have had little algea trouble, haven't tried to grow plants as my gluttenous angels enjoy pulling them up if I dont feed them enough

It shouldn't make any difference what colour light it is should it ? Chlorophyll is the most common photosynthetic agent in both plants and algae and shouldn't suddenly change it's properties from one to the other should it ?.

You are right about the plants absorbing in both the red and the blue. That should be obvious since the plants are green.

My opinion on lighting is to throw as much in as you can reasonably afford (up front costs and power bill). If you want to do plants then it will probably be things like CO2 and trace elements (iron) that limit plant growth but without the light they go nowhere. Just don't forget to give the fish some shade (good plant growth will do this).

NW I have a planted tank the same size running 2 double 4 foot tubes. i.e. 4 tubes in all.

My advise, go to an electrical wholesaler and buy your fittings and tubes (they might have to order the tubes in for you) a double fitting will only cost you $30 odd dollars tubes around $15-$25. LFS prices are ALWAYS 2-3 times as much as RRP from an electrical store (or a hrydoponics store). If you think you are ever going to have an interest in growing plants get 2 doubles even if you don't use them all now, (or at least setup your hood to allow for 2 doubles) the fittings are cheap, replacing your hood expensive. If you get into plants in a tank that size you WILL want more light.

Spooky,

As I understand it the reason the color matters is because water absorbs light at a different rate depending on color, from memory red end of spectrum the most, blue the least. Fresh water plants tend to grow closer to the surface therefore like redder light, marine corals etc deeper which is why marine tubes are blue.

Suphew, you are right, water does absorb more in the red (the sea is blue after all).

I still don't understand why this might bring about a difference between plants and algae. I suppose that the plants have a bigger surface area near the surface (their leaves) and so can take advantage of the red light while algae on surfaces near the bottom is stuck with only blue, so a red light might benefit plants over algae. Unfortunately both seem to grow well at all levels in my tank .

Sorry, understand your question now, you are correct algae and plants (algae are just low order plants after all) do both need light, + co2, nutiants (sp?). The trick to controlling algae is to get your plants to use up all the nutiants and starve the algae, because algae "genarally" need less light and more nutiants the easiest way to do this is good lighting and keeping the nutiants in the gravel not the water collum (where the algae is), hence we do water changes to remove the no3.

ps sorry about the spelling, I was never born to be an english treacher!!