rexliz

Wow - thats an awful lot of light especially if you put all six in - needed for Marines I assume. I use my 850 for freshwater planted - so I won't comment here any further - suffice to say for my 155l I may take out the smaller T8 (20w?) and replace it with a pair of T5H0s. By my (admittedly poor) maths, some 1w per litre - should be ample with CO2 injection etc. Or I could just gut the whole thing and put in 2 pairs of T5s - but that would be 156w of high output - probably too much? Thanks for your help. Cheers

Looking very professional. I went into Rexel in Auckland and they didn't have a clue - didn't even know there was a High Output version of the T5. Would you mind letting me know how much the ballasts were? Cheers

Have you got a picture/s of your T5 upgrade? I have built a T8 twin before - but just wondering what differences there are. The T5 electronic ballasts look longer and heavier than the old fashioned magnetic ones - are they? Are the endcap fittings similat to T8s - apart from being smaller. I am thinking of 4 tubes in an AR850 light unit - I think the same width as the 980, but shorter - you think that many will fit? Don't worry, I have a techie to check it before blastoff! ... Cheers

Sorry to hijack - but I want to do the same with my AR850 - can I ask where you got the ballasts and other necessary equipment (endcaps) from? Thanks

I must be leaking a lot - I get less than 7 days out of the large (800gm?) bottle. I will do the thread paste/soapy water thing.

I'm not using a bubble counter - have a flipper diffuser from one of the fermentation CO2 kits - you can see the bubble rate easily on it. What size soda stream bottle did you get a month out of?

For pressurised CO2 I have a soda stream bottle (100l one), a Tools Online regulator, a solenoid and needle valve. However, I am finding that a full bottle lasts less than a week, ten hours per day, one bubble per second. I use airline from LFS - it is blueish in colour - and obviously it is not CO2 proof. Would this be leaking the CO2 at this rate? or is it likely that I have a leak elsewhere? Should I use thread tape on all the joins? Any help would be appreciated.

The 100l still going after 7 days so I assume the last fill was a dud. Further question - my solenoid runs hot - so hot you can't hang on to it - does anyone know if this is normal?

I got one of these from Connect 2 Control - http://www.clippard.com/store/display_d ... sku=MNV-2K Including fittings about $30. I also got a separate solenoid valve from these guys - http://www.burkert.co.nz/index.html - $75. However, I found my 1st full 100l Soda Stream bottle only lasted about a week at 2 bubbles per second. Hopefully it was a dud bottle - so am trying another. Anyone know how long it would last at 1 bubble per second for 10 hours per day?

Thanks John It actually gets worse. My tank does require specific length tubes - two being 25w (~30") and the other I assumed was 24" (or 600mm) - but is actually ~590mm ( the 600mm don't fit - I have tried and broken one of the fittings). I don't expect anyone in this country is going to have those in any type let alone ~6500k. Strange thing is all the LFS's are selling the AR850 tank, and from what I can tell, none of them can supply the same tubes as come with the tank - 2x25w (600m) 6700k, and 1x20w (590mm) 10000k. As far as I'm concerned this is not good enough and I will be going back to the LFS that the tank came from and asking them to find them, or take the thing back - if they insist on selling the product, they must be able to supply tubes for them - which can only be considered consumables (they are only good for 6 months to a year at the outside). Unfortunately, the tubes appear to be of Chinese origin, so one cannot hold much hope of finding them in the local wholesale market. Others have this tank in NZ - probably on this forum - how do they get on? Maybe someone can enlighten me. Sorry for the rant. Thanks Rex

Unfortunately, all the wholesale places including Lamp Specialties don't stock 30" (nominal) 25w bulbs - in fact they were doubting one existed until I showed them mine. In any case two of them are 25w and one is a 24" 20w. The smaller one I can at least get in 6500k for the LFS (at LFS prices). It looks as though no one has heard of a 25w one of around 6500k, so I may be stuck with two 18000ks and one 6500k. I currently have one 18000k and I am certain it has lead to significantly more algae - especially green hair (or "thread"?) algae. It seems that not only to I have to pay LFS prices - but I can't even get the kelvin range I want for this tank. I should have suspected when the 3800k ones it came with were chinese in origin. Cheers

Thanks The Philips TLD86 an TLD96 are florescent tubes rated at 6500k daylight and recommended on this site (I did a search). My tank has built in lights that require 3 x 25w florescents (my understanding is that wattage generally determines length, and these are 29"). My tank holds ~150l and has 3 x 25w tubes, I assume that is sufficient for good growth (0.5 wpl) - 2 of the tubes the tank came with are 18000k (which now need to be replaced) which I believe are not that suitable for planted freshwater tanks. I wll make contact with your suggested supplier. Cheers

Hi I'm new around here - but have done a search and see that the Philips TLD 96 seems to be the recommended tube for lighting a planted freshwater tank. My problem is that my tank (Aquaone AR850) needs 25w bulbs and I cannot seem to find any of that length (approx 29"). Does anyone know whether they are made in this wattage (and therefore, length) and if so, where to pick them up in Auckland? I have enquired at most places I can think of and they only have 2ft (18w) and 3 ft (30w). Thanks

Hi there. Does this fish look stunted? I ahve heard that the eye to head ratio is used as an indicator. This discus does not seem to be growing as fast as others - although it may be difficult to tell as they grow at the same rate I guess.

Thanks for everytones help on this. The nitrate level is 5ppm. The phosphate (.5ppm) reading is the lowest my test kit will show - in fact it is propbably less than that. I have increased the lighting duration and that seems to have done some good.