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*** 30cm cube CFL lighting advice ***

F

Fiesta90150

Seedling
Joined
14 Jun 2015
Messages
10
Hello all :)

First of all, I'm new here and from France. Over the last three years I have fallen in love with reef tanks. I have never had a fresh water tank, but can't be much different than SW. Anyways, really one of the biggest issues in a reef tank is the lighting, led t5 halide, kelvins lumen par etc. is it the same for FW planted tanks?

I already bought a tank 30cm cube
JBL cristalprofi internal filter
25watt heater
I had a dennerle 11w light which well... You can see that it doesn't light the tank up that great.
jbl scape soil and some scapong stone. (Can't remember the name :p )

From what I have seen for a tank like mine:

- I would need to double the wattage?
- I see people using cfl / household bulbs?
- thinking a 20w 6500k rating bulb.

My goal is to do a fully planted tank with carpeting plants. I would just need to know what I should be looking for as for lighting. I would go led but if CFL works I would go for this option.

Any help on this matter would be really nice :D

Thanks




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Plants don't care what type of light they get, the one you have is probably a good place to start. If you don't have a CO2 system, you definitely don't need more light.

Once you are experienced with CO2, you can look into getting something more powerful.
 
Well according to what I have read if I want to get a nice planted carpet I will have to use co2. I'm guessing that if I don't have the adequate light but have co2 I will have minimal results? I have been looking at Eleocharis.


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What would be a good co2 system for this nano tank? I have read that you can either dose or inject co2


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Hi all,
Fiesta90150 said:
- I would need to double the wattage?
Click to expand...
The 11W lamp should provide enough light (PAR).
Fiesta90150 said:
- I see people using cfl / household bulbs?
- thinking a 20w 6500k rating bulb.
Click to expand...
You can use the 20W 6500K lamp. The more twists the lamp has in it, the less light it will produce compared to a linear T5 lamp. I'm not keen on the helical integrated CFL lamps as they tend to fail much more regularly than linear T5 lamps, probably because the control gear is in the base of the lamp. PL2 lamps (bi-pin, double turn) lamps tend to be better.

I'm not a CO2 ,or EI, user. So I'll let some-one else answer the CO2 question.

cheers Darrel
 
Thanks darrel.

Was looking more into lights yesterday and I find a lot of people with the finnex planted + ? I would only be able to use the 8w 30cm long version. Would that be enough for high lighting? As for co2 I will probably purchase the soda stream kit


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hmmm. I did ot think about t5. now I would only need to find somewher to order a boyu or a finnex :p
 
would you have the exact model name number?

Actually, just found it :) I think its the STS-350 ?

can you slide the legs inwards? As my tank is 30cm and thats a 35cm light.
 
thanks, I've been looking all other the internet for a place to buy it and have not found one :( also looked for a similar light and not found either.
 
how are your diy skills?
http://www.directtradesupplies.co.u...tube--white-?gclid=CMi0sZW_ocYCFWXLtAod0FAAQw
these are similar balasts used in the sts light. 2 of these would be enough for a 30l cube, 3 would be quite high light you would just have to mount them in an appropriate housing.
co2 equipment depends what you want to grow. liquid carbon would be ok for most things if you dosed double. hc cuba will grow with just liquid carbon but its very slow and grows a little bit leggy, Dwarf hairgrass should be ok though.

pressurised co2 is the cheapest long term option using regulators like these and co2 cylinder
http://www.co2art.co.uk/collections/regulators-solenoids

There are a few options for smaller tanks.

Regulator with sodastream adapter to use a sodastream cylinder
http://www.co2art.co.uk/products/ad...-to-use-with-standard-aquarium-co2-regulators
http://www.sodastream.co.uk/gas-cylinder/60ltr-exchange-cylinder?
gclid=CM2AtNnBocYCFTQatAodCw0Aog#fo_c=836&fo_k=fd39615dac965bcaa404ac62634c9fc8&fo_s=gplauk

regulator with disposable welding gas adapter
http://www.co2art.co.uk/collections...-to-use-with-standard-aquarium-co2-regulators
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/like/4009...3=1&ff11=ICEP3.0.0-L&ff12=67&ff13=80&ff14=108

I know all these options are available in the UK but I'm fairly certain you'll be able to buy similar in France too
 
I know people being testing CCFL instead of TL and the use with reflectors was pretty amazing, with a power usage of only 8 to 9 watts. Here is an aquarium DIY tut about making a ccfl setup, according the maker sufficiant for a small aquarium. With 4 ccfl tubes and a with a diy dimmer, and pretty cheap to make too. Do not know if google translation can mean something for you they whole explanation is in Dutch, but maybe the diagrams tell you enough to get an idea the figures, drawings and numbers are some what international.

Note this is just a test setup and not tested for the long term. But performance and intensity duration of ccfl should be same as led these days 50,000 hours and up. :)
http://www.home.zonnet.nl/rsetteur/

Click - Leds & CCFL > CCFL en Leds
 
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