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Will my Luminaire be long enough?

Sharkfat78

Sharkfat78

Seedling
Joined
21 May 2015
Messages
5
Hey,

I've spent some years now adding info to plans for my dream set up. And one thing I hadn't really considered was the equipment I currently have.

My last tank was 79" long and had a 60" Arcadia luminaire over it. The luminaire had three halides and two T8's. From what I remember the pendant cost me nearly £700 so because of that (and the amount of cash I'd lose) I was really hoping to use it on my next set up. Especially as its going to be expensive enough as it is lol.

The problem I'm facing is that the next set up should hopefully be 96" long. Obviously this will leave 18" either end that will not have lighting directly above it. Can anyone see this being a problem in regards to it being planted?
The halides are 150w each so have plenty of power, and I'm guessing I can raise the pendant up to increase where the light falls. But this also makes me wonder about the T8's being on, on their own when the halides are off.

Hope I'm making sense here. I know there are other factors involved with a planted tank, but once I get this sorted out I can concern myself with the finer details.

So I guess really my main concerns are the fact that 18" wont have light directly above at either end, and the two bulbs which will be on most of the time are T8's.

Thanks for your comments.
 
Hey shark,
I would stick with the Arcadia for your new tank and think about what the lighting spread will mean in terms of planting. The planting of the tank could consist of higher light plants in the middle and then towards the 18 inches either side a transition towards medium and the lower light plants, a tank covering the full range... Not sure that i have seen a tank that has done this before. Your other choice is to get a couple of small lights to fill the lighting gap. Here is some info on the lights i use:

Beamswork Green Evo 18-22inch lights:
· Two light settings - 3 or 10 LEDs
· 10 x 3w LEDs 30 watt
· 6500K
· 1350 lumens each
· 100 PAR @ 10 inches

What i think about the lights:

I have had these two units on my tank for 6 months and have had no problem from them. They create a fair amount of heat when they are running on all 10 LEDs but not enough to cause any problems with the tank. The colour rendition of the lights falls into the warmish light being 6500K, Red plants look great, greens kind of merge together a little. Build quality of the light are great, they have a slim profile so do not distract from the tank. The spread of light across the tank is fantastic due to the lenses and the penetration of light to the substrate (21 inches on my tank) is no issue. These light can't have a dimmer added to them which is a shame, but by trying a number of combinations of the two way switch control is possible.

Below are the PAR measurements i have taken with a Skye meter and a waterproof sensor, measurements taken at 21 inches from substrate:
LEDs-PAR
3-25
6-31
10-46
13-62
20-82

Pro's
· Cheap £44.99 http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Beamswork...ylight-planted-aquarium-45-60cm-/161254415719
· High output
· Some degree of control - PAR output
· Slim line design
· Good cable length

Con's
· No way to dim the lights (have tried using a cheap inline one)

Hope this helps out,
Jim
 
Nice one Jim, thanks. I've added those lights to my watch list on ebay.

I was actually thinking of using lower light plants at the edges as one way of dealing with it. The tank will be for Discus anyway so that will provide some shady areas. And I'm thinking some java fern and anubias and moss on wood at the sides may 'frame' it nicely. I'm going to be changing the halides out for 6500k bulbs also so that will help, and dealing with the T8's are easy enough. I just didn't want to have to sell the arcadia if I could help it as I'd lose too much on it.

Do you know if those Beamswork lights do slightly longer versions at all? I'm planning on the tank being 30" wide.

Thanks again
 
Its going to be a while yet, maybe not even this year. I'm having the room renovated first so I'm taking my time to get all my research and plans sorted in the mean time :D
 
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