Arcadia Lighting

[wally6346]

I have a Tetra AquaArt 60L tank that cam with the standard hood and lighting unit...i want to put two bulbs in now to increase the WPG with two nutrafin kits...would http/cgi.ebay.co.uk/ARCADIA-OVERTANK-LUM...1QQcmdZViewItem fit onto the tank if i removed the existing hood or this there any other way i could install another bulb?
thanks!!

 

[Themuleous]

There is almost always a way of adding more light to an existing tank, if you can post a pic of the underside of the hood I'm sure we would sort something

Sam

 

[wally6346]

There is almost always a way of adding more light to an existing tank, if you can post a pic of the underside of the hood I'm sure we would sort something

Sam

Hi Sam,

Thanks, here's two pics, hope they help enough:

 

[Underwurlde]

Acres & acres of room. Hectares in fact. Over to you sam.

Andy

PS
In the meantime good ol Georgy F added some good pics on adding lights in his nano journo....
http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=160501

 

[Themuleous]

that made me chuckle Andy indeed lots of rooms for more light. The question is how much do you add? Do you know the current wattage of the tube you have and also what kind of tank are you after? High or low light? I take i those two spaces on either side of the existing bulb are flaps?

Sam

 

[wally6346]

that made me chuckle Andy indeed lots of rooms for more light. The question is how much do you add? Do you know the current wattage of the tube you have and also what kind of tank are you after? High or low light? I take i those two spaces on either side of the existing bulb are flaps?

Sam

The current wattage of the tube is 15W (its a T8 white light if thats relevant too!)...I'm after a medium light tank, I have ideas of growing Hemianthus callitrichoides ''Cuba'' to carpet the bottom of the tank...i'm just getting ideas now to re-do the complete tank...and yes, the two spaces are flaps.
Thanks again

 

[Themuleous]

Im afraid carpeting plants like HC and glosso need high light to really work. So you might have to rethink that one. If you are after a medium light tank, then for your 60lt (16US gallons) I would aim for between 25 and 30w of light. That you put you just under 2WPG. And outside the realms of high light tanks, that are more demanding.

Im having a little trouble working out exactly what you should do here, there seem to be two options, either two bulbs or a single bulb.

So here's what you could do

Option 1 - Add a second bulb to the one you have. Starter unit and a bulb (the arcadia freshwater is excellent) and a reflector. Just drill a two holes in the lid and attach it in. Its very easy.

Option 2 - rip out the existing light an get a new starter, power compact 25w bulbs and reflector. Again just drill two holes and bolt in. This bulb is however only 12" long so the plants at the edges might struggle.

Option 3 - rip out the existing lighting and add two new T8 tubes, both 15w. For that you'd need a twin starter which Arcadia do, two bulbs and two reflector.

In this situation I actually think ripping out the existing light might be better, the lighting that comes with the tank is unlikely to be very good for plant growth, and if you want a nice planted tank it is important the lighting is right. I haven't costed any of these options up, Ill leave that to you Option one will probably be the easiest but wont give you the best light. Option three would give you great light but would probably cost the most. As is always the way with planted tanks, they cost lots of money if you want to do them properly!

Hope that helps

Sam

 

[wally6346]

Im afraid carpeting plants like HC and glosso need high light to really work. So you might have to rethink that one. If you are after a medium light tank, then for your 60lt (16US gallons) I would aim for between 25 and 30w of light. That you put you just under 2WPG. And outside the realms of high light tanks, that are more demanding.

Im having a little trouble working out exactly what you should do here, there seem to be two options, either two bulbs or a single bulb.

So here's what you could do

Option 1 - Add a second bulb to the one you have. Starter unit and a bulb (the arcadia freshwater is excellent) and a reflector. Just drill a two holes in the lid and attach it in. Its very easy.

Option 2 - rip out the existing light an get a new starter, power compact 25w bulbs and reflector. Again just drill two holes and bolt in. This bulb is however only 12" long so the plants at the edges might struggle.

Option 3 - rip out the existing lighting and add two new T8 tubes, both 15w. For that you'd need a twin starter which Arcadia do, two bulbs and two reflector.

In this situation I actually think ripping out the existing light might be better, the lighting that comes with the tank is unlikely to be very good for plant growth, and if you want a nice planted tank it is important the lighting is right. I haven't costed any of these options up, Ill leave that to you Option one will probably be the easiest but wont give you the best light. Option three would give you great light but would probably cost the most. As is always the way with planted tanks, they cost lots of money if you want to do them properly!

Hope that helps

Sam

Thanks for your help Sam I think at the moment I'll try option 1 and see how it goes...after looking at the links, would I need the 18" 15W Tropical Lamp, the Hagen Glomat Single Starter Unit 20w, and a suitably sized relector? Sorry if I'm being a bit stupid, just getting confused by the choice!!! Anyway, thanks again, much appreciated!

Alex


Sorry, I did mean the freshwater Lamp (!!!) instead!!

 

[Themuleous]

No probs If you are just getting a single bulb, I would go for the Arcadia 15w starter, a 15w bulb in a 20w starter might not be such a good thing, although I'm no electrician and yes def get a reflector, they are done on the watts of the bulbs, so get a 15w reflector and it'll be the right size for a 15w bulbs, think its 17".

Sam

 

[wally6346]

No probs If you are just getting a single bulb, I would go for the Arcadia 15w starter, a 15w bulb in a 20w starter might not be such a good thing, although I'm no electrician and yes def get a reflector, they are done on the watts of the bulbs, so get a 15w reflector and it'll be the right size for a 15w bulbs, think its 17".

Sam

Thats great, I'm glad you added that last bit in now, clarified what I need to get...the only thing now is on the link to the bulbs would it be best to get the Arcadia Original Tropical Lamp, or the Arcadia Freshwater Lamp? Cheers for this...then hopefully I can order and get this sorted out!!!

 

[RadaR]

Arcadia Freshwater by far! It's alot better for plant growth.

 

[Themuleous]

Yes get the freshwater, its a superb tube. Looking forward to seeing the tank up and running

Sam

 

[wally6346]

Yes get the freshwater, its a superb tube. Looking forward to seeing the tank up and running

Sam

Ah thats great then, i'll get it sorted!!
I'm doing a bit of re-haul so we'll see how it turns out!! I'll post some pictures eventually and let you know
Thanks again!

 

[Themuleous]

Just had a thought, do you have a LFS where you can take stuff back if necessary? Looking at those pics again, the hood is long but there are two fins that shorten the size if it, I think you might not be able to get a 18"/15w tube in there? Just thinking, it would be worth buying a bulb and trying it before getting all the rest of the kit, just to be on the safe side. That or remove the fins so you have access to the full length of the hood.

Sam

 

[wally6346]

Just had a thought, do you have a LFS where you can take stuff back if necessary? Looking at those pics again, the hood is long but there are two fins that shorten the size if it, I think you might not be able to get a 18"/15w tube in there? Just thinking, it would be worth buying a bulb and trying it before getting all the rest of the kit, just to be on the safe side. That or remove the fins so you have access to the full length of the hood.

Sam

Good suggestion, I'm thinking I might take the current bulb out and see where I can fit it...the fins (if I've got the right jist of what your saying) rotate when the flaps open, and yes they would go over the whole where i would make for the new bulb....

Maybe I will have to go without the back flap which I don't use anyway?

One question I needed to ask to anybody too is what plants to use that will carpet the bottom that have a similar finish and look to glosso or HC...obviously I will only have just under 2WPG as mentioned before and I'll continue to se the two Nutrafin CO2 kits, for money reasons!!! I'm thinking of changing the substrate too from this tacky blue-ish gravel!! Maybe to Onyx sand? Any suggestions are more than welcome!