hello everyone,

you will find my introductions on the welcome board

in preparation for introducing plants to my 60L community tank i am increasing the lighting to around 60-80W.

i currently have a single 18W aquarium lighting tube, solely to illuminate the fish.

i have been investigating the "energy saving" lightbulbs that are actually fluro tubes twisted into a bulb shape with a self contained starter.

the 20W bulbs are 1200 lumens and 6500 kelvin.. i am thinking of purchasing 4 bulbs and 4 hanging bayonet fittings, wiring the 4 fittings in parallel and positing all 4 bulbs insde a large round light shade that would sit on top of the tank with a single cord coming out of the middle.

the estimated cost of this project is $60 (all supplies from Mitre10). This compares favourably to the next cheapest option, a double fitting and two 40W tubes from www.sog.co.nz for around $100, + some sort of reflector.

i would like thoughts on this.. effectiveness of these bulbs? would the vent holes on the light shade be sufficient for the four bulbs?

another issue i have is that currently, to clean my tank out, i remove all the plastic plants and stones and wash them in tank water, and then vacuum over all the gravel to complete a 25% water change. i do this weekly... with a planted tank it would obviously be harder to vacuum the gravel.. how do others combat this problem, given that a small tank requires more maintenence.. how often do others vacuum gravel?

thankyou

henry

I've gotten to where I don't even bother vacuuming the gravel most of the time unless I see pleco poop floating around in the plants.

If you have a chance, stop at Lamp specialists in Petone. They've got a better selection of screw in flouros than mitre 10. Might be better to get some higher kelvin ones and higher wattage ones. My personal preference I think the standard ones mitre 10 has will be too yellow. I'm not sure how the prices compare though...

thank you ira, i will try and take the train out to petone to check this out!

incidentally, i recently took the train to kaiwharawhara to the animates store and was like a kid in a candy shop... so many tanks, so much equipment... having previously only been to animalz in miramar (whos fish section was pitiful) i was in heaven!

apparently there is also a store in the hutt somewhere.. do you know the address of this store, the nearest train station, and how to get from station to store?

thank you,

henry

There's an animates and the lower hutt pet center in lower hutt. I think the melling station would be the closest one to those two. You'll find the animates easy enough, it's on the other side of the bridge. The other...Let's see...Over the bridge, straight at the first roundabout and second roundabout to the right of the motorcycle store and it's just before the animates. I'm horrible at giving directions.

If you buy anything expensive, the petshop in Coastlands, Paraparaumu, is much cheaper than Animates. They also do a discount if you join an FNZAS affiliated club. I just discovered that place a little while ago and got a test kit for $45 that would've cost me $70 in Animates!

I've never heard of "lumens". Do you mean lux? I don't know much about lighting but even if a lumen is a unit, the plural of lumen is lumina. No offense but I'm picky .

Yeah, Lumens is a measurement of light and it's different from lux.

It was based on the old "Candle Power" if I remember correctly.

Lumen.. or lumin... is the Latin for Light.

the day you stop learning is the day you stop living

yes, interfectus, pluralising lumen by adding an s does seem clunky, but funilly enough that was how the rating was expressed on the box! maybe a good indication to steer clear of that particular brand? :lol:

thank you everyone

i bought my fluro's from my local electrician $40 for double 40 watts and then got a local sheetmetal worker to cut the reflectors down so they could fit under the hood real cheap

I have used those short fluoros on small tanks just pugging them into a short extension cord and sitting them on the glass lid with an old cut-off piece of plastic guttering for a cover. Line the guttering with aluminium foil to get more reflection.

I have 2 x 18 watt (100watt equilv) energy saver lights over a 1mtr x 600mm deep triangle tank. I got the bulbs for $2.99 last week at the Warehouse L.Hutt on special. Couldnt ask for more. Plants are going wild and fish look in briliant colours. I want to upgrade to some fluro tubes but for the moment it works great.

Ira - lumen and lux are different terms but they are directly related - the intensity of the light is measured as lumens and "lumens per square metre" is called lux

So then they're two totally different measurements. Like comparing torque and horsepower.

Ok, I'm just being a pain in the *censored* I'll shut up now.

Pies - I think you have just justified your 'shutup ira replies'...

I want to upgrade to some fluro tubes but for the moment it works great.

Get a couple more and you won't need fluro tubes If you have them in the right spectrum they do more than standard fluro tubes