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Lighting for low-tech - which bulb?

Christie_ZXR

Christie_ZXR

Member
Joined
15 Jan 2012
Messages
119
Location
London
Hi guys,

Need some help plz. Try as I might, lighting is one thing I can't get my head around!!

I want to set up another walstead style tank. It's a 18" tall and works out to be 90 odd L. Would an 18" 15W interpet "tropical daylight" bulb do the job?

I've got a modded 30L biorb set up with one of those bulbs mounted above it, and it works a treat, but I don't know if I'll need something stronger for a bigger tank. The tank is roughly the same height as the biorb, so my logic was it's going through the same depth of water so the same bulb ought to work. Is that right? (Plus I have a spare one of those bulbs anyway)

Plants would be cuttings from the biorb. So vallis, amazon sword, and a bunch of stem plants I can't remember the names of... :oops: Think hygrophila is one of them, but I'm not certain.

Any help would be appreciated :)

ta v. much :D
 
agreed. I have 4 walstad tanks all about 5-6 months old. One is a jungle nano. I have the link below in my signature. I have an 11w cool white bulb that does just fine. 15w sounds fine, you wont even need to spend the money on a tropical daylight bulb, literally any bulb will do. the higher the kelvin the whiter the light but this is for our benefit really. Its nicer to look at a more whiter tank than a yellow tank but it doesnt matter to plants. But I just saw have a spare knocking around so you should be fine :) get some photos up and get a journal done :)
 
lol! Yes boss!

Cheers guys, will have an experiment with that light.

Hopefully going to get cracking one night this week and get the soil and sand in.
 
The general rule is about 1 watt per gallon of T5 or around 1.5 watts per gallon T8, so IMO 15 watts might be a little low for a 90 litre / 20 imp gallon tank, even for the likes of Anubias spp and Microsorum pteropus var.

As an aside, so not to complicate the issue, duration, and shading have roles to play too. For instance, I have a 90 litre low-energy tank, which is also 18 inches tall, lit by an Arcadia Ellipse 24 watt Plant Pro which is on for 8 hours a day and that works well, but the surface is also heavily shaded by emergent growth and floating plants.
 
Ta for the help guys :)

But ugh! This has been one of those "wish I'd never started it" jobs...

This is an old tank which I've had for yonks with an integrated light in the hood. To start with, the old bulb was dead. Then the screws were rusted and it took me a good hours worth of swearing to get them out so I could get the bulb out!! Problem number 3 was the starter itself, which was also dead, and of course eventually, the whole unit itself turned out to be flipping dead!

Managed eventually to take things to bits and sort it. Raided my fishy cupboard and fitted another unit and bulb into the gap the old one came from, so I finally have light! With the guts ripped out, so to speak, it also means I could possibly get a bigger tube in there if I need to, which I couldn't have done before :D

Soil, sand, plants and various cuttings are in too :) so we'll see how they do under this light and upgrade if needs be.

No pics until I've properly cleaned the surrounding area of bits of knackered light fittings and rusty screws though... :oops:
 
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