Lights and penetration.

[Katfish]

HI all I am new hear so please take it easy on me lol.

I am in the setting up stage of my tank and need some advice on my lighting I have for it

My tank is 72" long 24" wide and 32" high (water lever will be 27") open top tank. Holding 170 gallons this is not including the water the sump will hold.

The distance from the bottom of the tank to the lights will be around 44"

I was given a 6ft hanging light fitting that started out as 3 x 250w halides and 2 x 54w T5's and 4 20w MR11 down lighters.
I was given this as 2 of the halides was broken so I went about changing it as I thought 3x250w halides would be over kill big time.

This is what I have ended up with after my rewiring and changing of fittings etc

3 x 70 watts Halides
2 x 54 watts T5's
4 x 2 watts SMD LEDS

Will this still be over kill for my tank or not enough light ?

 

[George Farmer]

Re: Lights and perertration.

Hi and welcome to the forum!

Lovely size tank you have!

It's tough to say if that's enough light because we don't know what you want to grow, and what the other aspects to your set-up are i.e. will you be injecting CO2, what circulation will you have, what nutrients, what substrate etc?

I would guess that with the right nutrients and circulation; you will have enough light to grow most plants, but may struggle with some carpeting plants. These tend to do poorly in deeper tanks, not just because of light drop-off, but because it's quite a challenge to get the CO2 and nutrients circulated effectively down there. This potential issue is compounded in longer and wider aquariums because they're that much more difficult to circulate effectively and consistently.

Cheers,
George

 

[Katfish]

Yes I will be using co2 injection I have a 2kg JBL setup

My substrate will be soil based with a sand top layer

For circulation I have a OR 3200 return from the sump and 2 x 3000ltr circ/powerheads

 

[Katfish]

Will this be enough circulation in my tank ? for the lighting I will be using

 

[Katfish]

I am now selling this light fitting as I am going down a different route.