Fluval 125 Opinions And Lighting Help!

[aibo210]

Hi

I have seen a good deal on a fluval roma 125 wich is ideal size for my room. I just wonderd is this a good tank to go for? and would It be possible to add a 3rd tube to the lid? or is the lighting ideal enough for plants anyway? I looked at the juwel rio but there using there own t5 tubes at £25 a shot!

Carl

 

[RadaR]

The Fluval's are good tanks.
The 125 Roma is supplied with dual 20Ws. Therfore 40Ws over a 33US gallon tank is equal to 1.2WPG. The tank would be fairly "low tech" and you would be ok with the basic plants and a good fertiliser regime. However, if you wanted to try some more advanced plants and go a bit more "high tech" then another 20W bulb would be excellent. That would bring you up to about 1.8WPG. What you need, is a single 20W ballast (controller) and then a 18-20W bulb. Somehow you would have to fit this into the hood, whether its by balancing the bulb, or securing it to another bulb through the use of spring light clips. Remember, metal reflectors are essential and direct a lot of the light back into the aquarium.
Any more questions, feel free to ask.

 

[SuperColey1]

I have the 'old' version the DUo Deep 800.

Good value tank and the lights are OK. I ended up modding mine right up and have since remodded them back down.

Buy some decent polished metal reflectors (£5 each from P@H) and some decent tubes to replace the dodgy hagen ones supplied with the tank and it is OK for plants.

No need to up the lights really or you'll be end up needing dosing regimes and CO2 (which I do)

I have also replaced the filter as I wanted a larger cannister and not an internal. I also replaced the heater to an external more due to aesthetics as the tronics supplied are quite good.

So just need to buy the reflectors which can clip onto your existing tubes and then upgrade the tubes. The Arcadia ones that P@H sell are a decent starting point and IMO the freshwater (green box don't know what its called in P@H as they have them renamed for some reason) is one of the best colour renditions out ther and I still use one to this day. Mix one of these with a tropical pink light (the pink box. again don't know what its called in P@H) and it should balance the colour nicely.

Take a look at barrreport.com at non CO2 methods which are aimed at low-medium light tanks and will give you a good idea of what to start off with rather than having to change substrates etc later on.

This is how my Fluval Duo Deep 800 (125Ltr) looks these days. Loads of unnecessary mods etc. lol

Andy

 

[MairiM]

"some decent tubes to replace the dodgy hagen ones supplied"

I do feel that the lighting supplied doesn't really reach to the bottom of my tank, even tho' I've recently bought new tubes. Which tubes do you recommend?