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Help a newbie with lighting please!

Shivers

Seedling
Joined
9 Jul 2010
Messages
18
Location
Edinburgh
Had a custom 90x45x45 aquarium sitting here for ages and still not got anything in it...first of all, was going to go the planted route, but for the moment I'd just like to get some fish in there and go the planted route after I get some experience under my belt. So I'm looking at just keeping a lowly stocked tank, and in for the first while it won't be planted, since my tank is 90cm long does that mean I absolutely need 90cm long lights? Or is 60/80 enough for example? Also please note I'm needing an over-tank luminaire since my tank is hoodless, and I'm also trying to keep the price down, I've heard great things about Arcadia but they seem a but pricey, any other brands I should be looking at? Looking at going down the T5 route, thanks in advance... :D

Edit - This is what I looked at, although I'd need it in black, £220 is more than I was wanting to spend if possible though, was looking more at spending £150- if possible (unit has to be black), although maybe I'm being un-realistic? Found unbranded cheap ones on Amazon but guessing that's a risk.
 
Hi Shivers, in most cases, it's usually best to go for the branded options as they are trusted and customer service will always be helpful if something goes wrong. Whereas unbranded products can often leave a lot to be desired, but in some cases they work just fine. (Sorry i've not really helped you make a decision here! :lol: ).
AllPondSolutions seem to have a decent range of T5 lighting so have a look here http://www.allpondsolutions.co.uk/aquar ... hting.html
But really, all i can reccommend are Acardia lighting systems (although they may be expensive) as I've had no experience with AllPondSolutions.
Depending on your plants you should probably go for 2-4 watts of light per gallon.
Hope this helps and that it wasn't too vague :oops: :D
 
Don't be daft mate that's very helpful, thanks! :D...looking at the link you gave me. Any idea on length of light/tube though?
 
Well, I'm not 100% sure but this is a rough estimate. You'll have to follow this procedure for each light unit but I think it works. One of the 90cm units takes 4x39W tubes. So just search 39W T5 tube in google and when you find the right site it should tell you the length! Bit of an annoying process but it gets a result. (The 39W tubes are 81.3cm long!)
Hope this helps :D
Edit: To get the detailed product specifications, click on any light unit, scroll down and you'll get the specs of all units!
 
Thanks guys, so something like this would be ideal then? Sad thing is I need it in black so not sure what to do...
 
Haha, no idea! Have to weigh up how reliable it will be against the arcadia unit though, good luck! ;)
 
Haha, if these were Arcadia units I would've bought 5 already :oops: :lol:
 
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