not for plants.

oh really? Try the link on the auction, it sends a page of the benefits of LED lighting,

http://www.mainlyelectronics.co.nz/ledblue.htm

" You can just use all blue led's at start for straight vegetative growth and Start adding reds when you want to start flowering or budding "

I had also read from : http://www.aquatic-eden.com/2009/10/led ... art-2.html

" LEDs can produce exactly the wavelength of light needed by plants. There are very specific wavelenghts that plants use for photosynthesis, and if you didn't care much about how the planted tank looked to the human eye, you could buy LEDs that only emitted these wavelenghts. "

He's full of it. A LED lighting system that'll work well for plants will use proper high output LEDs like these ones or these ones

Those 10mm LEDs he's using won't be good for anything.

So i have been out, and Hutt pets has the fixture for $160

What kind of fixture?

What kind of fixture?

2. Buy http://www.hollywoodfishfarm.co.nz/product_detail.php?id=1910

So i should end up with like 108 Watts of HO T5 lighting with reflectors hopefully doubling the lighting

So i have been out, and Hutt pets has the fixture for $160

for a 4ft fixture?

that is cheeeeaaappp!!!

YEa i know right! its the 54W one

I was expecting quite a bit more

Can you explain to me how you're going to put 54w T5HO tubes, which are 122cm in length over your 70cm length tank?

I assume the size down is much cheaper?

urmmm

4 foot light?

I assumed that i could just buy a 54W light for the size of my tank lol

I guess i was wrong

LOL

no. the 4ft ones are 54w x2 tubes HO

2ft ones are 24W x2 HO

3ft ones are 36W X2 HO

hahahaha thats ma bad

Ok so i would go for the 24Watts one?

Ok guys, so i am off today to buy stuff

$128 for the fixture to fix the size of my tank lol

Apparently its $50 a bulb , for HO T5 lighting, im looking for 18k and 10k? and if my budget doesnt reach 6500K?

and i will also get some plants

How come your tank is up for sale now?

haha your on to it

Im thinking about buying a Rio 240... !!!!

Hey Aqua,

Did you end up buying the Hagen remote ballast? I'm interested in getting one of these.. primarily they seem the easiest way of being able to install in an existing hood.

Be keen to hear how you got on with it.

Cheers,

Stephen

Heya Stephan I did end up getting one.

I got the 24W T5 HO system, it cost me $128 from hutt pets.

Great stuff. Did you install it into your existing hood?

How does it all go together?

I'm looking at getting one to install in a hood which doesn't have any lighting currently.

Do the end caps for the tube get installed into the hood, or do the reflectors/clips hold the tubes in place and the end caps just screw on to the tubes?

How did you position the ballast unit? Does it get very hot?

Holy cow! lol

Idk, it is still in the box, i need to buy some tubes for it first

do u have the same tank as me?

Nope.. bought a random tank and stand off trademe... it also had a hood.

The hood had a dodgy 60cm light fixture in it.. but if I plug it in it blows fuses so I've thrown that out.

So yeah.. I've been looking at the hagen as an option to replace it with.

Also looked at the arcadia I-bar.. which look quite good for installation into an existing hood... HFF show them on their website: http://www.hollywoodfishfarm.co.nz/prod ... 5_fittings - not sure how much they go for though... but it's another option. I couldn't find them on the arcadia website though (except for an old development version of their site I managed to find) so I'm thinking they might be discontinued?