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Juwel 70cm lights and non photoperiod light

PeteA

Member
Joined
20 Jun 2011
Messages
170
Location
Devizes, Wiltshire
Couple of questions regarding lights.

Firstly, I collected my new (second-hand) tank yesterday and the lighting unit is well, rather manky. It has white water marks and green gak all over the plastic. According to the chap I bought it from, it has one regular aquarium bulb (don't know if it's T5 or T8) and one terrapin bulb so I know that I need to replace at least one bulb. Is it worth scrapping the unit completely or just the bulbs? When I plant the tank up it will have a medium amount of plantage so I know I need reasonable lighting - it's a 190 litre tank that's 60cm tall.

Secondly, I know that the length of time your lights (and CO2) are on should be roughly the same as your photoperiod - which will initially be quite short and lengthen as they develop. Are there bulbs/lights out there that could be used after the photoperiod has finished so that I can still see what's going on in my tank?
 
If the tubes are 5/12 inch wide they are T5, if they are 8/12 inch wide they are T8. I'm sure others can help you with the rest of the questions - I just picked off the easy one :)

Mark

PS the length of time your lights are on IS your photoperiod.
 
Correction:
T8s are 8/8'' across = 1 inch ~ 25mm
T5s are 5/8'' across = 0.625 inch ~ 16mm

Your tubes are T8s

EDIT: I completely forgot to answer your Qs...

Lose the TerraPin bulb. I has some ultraviolet light in it, that might speed up the breakdown of some of the micro nutrients, but there's no reason to scrap the other bulb if it's in good shape. Same goes for the lighting unit itself.

I'm not quite sure what is meant by your second question? The lighting period is the time where your main lights are on. If you're using CO2 injection you might want to offset the on/off times, e.g. let the CO2 come on and off a couple of hours before the lights.

I would be a bit cautious with having too much light on after the main photoperiod. Your plants might not be able to utilize the light, but the algae definitely will. Why not just have the lights come on sometime during the afternoon and continue into the evening, if that's when you're home and able to enjoy your tank?
 
YzemaN said:
Your tubes are T8s

EDIT: I completely forgot to answer your Qs...

Lose the TerraPin bulb. I has some ultraviolet light in it, that might speed up the breakdown of some of the micro nutrients, but there's no reason to scrap the other bulb if it's in good shape. Same goes for the lighting unit itself.

I'm not quite sure what is meant by your second question? The lighting period is the time where your main lights are on. If you're using CO2 injection you might want to offset the on/off times, e.g. let the CO2 come on and off a couple of hours before the lights.

I would be a bit cautious with having too much light on after the main photoperiod. Your plants might not be able to utilize the light, but the algae definitely will. Why not just have the lights come on sometime during the afternoon and continue into the evening, if that's when you're home and able to enjoy your tank?

Ok, so I'll kick off with the T8 unit and save up for a spangly T5 once I've got the tank more established.

Sorry I wasn't clear on the second question. I read on here that when your lights go on, your plants wake up and consume CO2 and nutrients at a rapid rate of knots. This slows down as time progresses and explains why its recommended to shift your CO2 time frame to be 2 hours before (start and finish) your light time. I think that the first part of my question was answered in that (roughly) plants need the same amount of light regardless of the quantity (not 100% accurate but is enough for my current thoughts). The second part of the question was if there is anything I can use to illuminate my tank, but not affect the photoperiod?
 
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