lighting

[fraservet]

I am getting a juwel trigon 190 tank (hopefully today)
Unfortunatley due to the shape, it has very short light tubes in it.
I think they are 18w (24"?) and there are 2.
I am intending to grow plants in this tank (although nothing that really requires very bright light).

I am going to install reflectors on the lights. When calculating wattage, how do you adjust it with reflectors - i.e. no reflector 18w, reflector (theoretically double output minus light going back towards the tube) about 30w?.

Does anyone know of any T5 units that can be fitted to this tank (they all seem to be too big)?

I prefer high intensity lights over my tanks and was intending to get 2 powerglo or triton tubes.
These are labelled as good for plant growth, but would it be better to get one of these and 1 flora-glo or similar?

 

[The-Wolf]

Hi
I belive that the reflectors acually do increase
the light but only by a factor of 1.5 (18w x 1.5=27w)
Triton tubes are very good IMO

depending on the plants you want the rule of thumb is 2w per gallon


HTH

 

[konrad05]

Tritons are generally used for corals, since the blue wavelength penetrates deeper into the water, carrying other wavelengths. You should go for a full spectrum in the 6700K or 10000K area. You will have better results. Good luck.

 

[Joviella]

I have a juwel trigon 190. It is a heavily planted tank, and with the exception of adding reflectors, I have left the lighting alone. My plants grow like mad and I am very happy with it. Just wanted to share my experience of this tank.