Recommendations for lighting and heater

[gwand]

I am building a 60 gallon, 48 inch x 18.5 inch L x 16 inch H tank. I’m looking for recommendations for a heater and lighting system. Anyone like Hygger products? Thanks.

 

[Magnum Man]

If my memory is right, I like the Hygger heaters… but I don’t particularly like the orange section on the heater guards… I try to make things like that disappear in my tanks, I see no reason to make any parts that go in the tank, out of blaze orange plastic…

Most of the new LED lights are great, but I haven’t been good at programming them, part of it, is it can be complicated, but also, on most of the instructions, I don’t know how they print clearly, in that small of a font… Even magnified I often can’t read them… so now, typically I use a pair of plant LED bars that have minimal settings ( reads easy to set ) one to come in the morning, for a couple hours and another to come on before I go to bed, for a couple hous, then I manually turn on and off the main tank LED’s

 

[TNG]

I am building a 60 gallon, 48 inch x 18.5 inch L x 16 inch H tank. I’m looking for recommendations for a heater and lighting system. Anyone like Hygger products? Thanks.

I use Eheim heaters and Hygger lights. But when going away for more than a few days, I turn the hyggers off and replace them with normal lights with mechanical timers because the hyggers will lose the clock memory when there’s a power outage.

 

[Colin_T]

What fish are going in the tank?
Are you adding lots of plants?

I used Rena heaters years ago and they were great then, no idea what they are like now.

If you aren't adding lots of live plants, any LED light with a 6500K rating will do to provide light to see the fish. If you want a well planted tank, the Fluval 3.0 LED light unit is meant to be one of the best, but it's also pricey. Most LED light units with a 6500K rating should be fine for plants on the tank due to its height (16 inches).

 

[gwand]

What fish are going in the tank?
Are you adding lots of plants?

I used Rena heaters years ago and they were great then, no idea what they are like now.

If you aren't adding lots of live plants, any LED light with a 6500K rating will do to provide light to see the fish. If you want a well planted tank, the Fluval 3.0 LED light unit is meant to be one of the best, but it's also pricey. Most LED light units with a 6500K rating should be fine for plants on the tank due to its height (16 inches).

Anomalochromis thomasi, Pelvicachromas Kribensis moliwe and Congo tetras. I will plant multiple Anubias and several Amazon swords.

 

[Fishfunn]

I like Hygger plant led lights. I been using them, and I like the model that I can program multiple user zone time durations and their individual intensity.

 

[Uberhoust]

I uses Fluval and Ebo-Jager heaters now for years, mostly like them. As for lights I have 3 different Nicrew lights that I use with a Nicrew Ramp Timers. The light combination loses time during a power outage but keeps all other settings so the light still goes on and off, just not at quite the right time. To get something that will correct the time means linking to the web.

 

[GaryE]

Heater quality, which is where I think a lot of reputations were made, was a bigger issue before digital controls. I had ebos that lasted well over ten years - I had one from the nineties that just became unreliable last year.
I find now, when I have a mix of ebos and fluvals, that that are quite interchangeable, and quite good across the board. Pre-digital, I had a few brands kill entire tanks, but those days are hopefully behind us. The reputations have stuck, even though the thermostats rarely do now.
I don't use many heaters, and when I do, I have 2 per tank and am only heating a few degrees above room temps. For the fish you're going for @gwand , they are good from 23 to 26c. If you are breeding them, some experiments have shown Moliwe to give you close to 50/50 sex ratios at 26. I bred them at 22-23 and only got a slight excess of females.
No tank here goes above 26.

 

[gwand]

Heater quality, which is where I think a lot of reputations were made, was a bigger issue before digital controls. I had ebos that lasted well over ten years - I had one from the nineties that just became unreliable last year.
I find now, when I have a mix of ebos and fluvals, that that are quite interchangeable, and quite good across the board. Pre-digital, I had a few brands kill entire tanks, but those days are hopefully behind us. The reputations have stuck, even though the thermostats rarely do now.
I don't use many heaters, and when I do, I have 2 per tank and am only heating a few degrees above room temps. For the fish you're going for @gwand , they are good from 23 to 26c. If you are breeding them, some experiments have shown Moliwe to give you close to 50/50 sex ratios at 26. I bred them at 22-23 and only got a slight excess of females.
No tank here goes above 26.

Thank you, Gary. While I have your ear or should I say eyes, let me ask you a question about the pieces of slate I will provide a. thomasi so she can deposit her eggs. How many square inches approximately should the flat surface be? Thanks again. I have a nice piece of slate that can make several pieces of flat surfaces.BTW I took you up on your coconut suggestion for caves. I carve the coconut just the other night.

 

[TNG]

. . . As for lights I have 3 different Nicrew lights that I use with a Nicrew Ramp Timers. The light combination loses time during a power outage but keeps all other settings so the light still goes on and off, just not at quite the right time. To get something that will correct the time means linking to the web.

@Uberhoust, I’m quite interested in the Nicrew light if the light still operates after an outage even though on a different lighting cycle. The Hygger does not lose the setting memory during an outage, but will remains either ON or OFF indefinitely when the power is restored. The clock needs to be reset for the light cycle to work again.

If you could test your Nicrew by unplugging it then plug it in again during the day, don’t reset the clock, and see if it ever turns itself off (6, 7 or 8 hours later).

If it does, I’ll swap my Hyggers for the Nicrews.

 

[Uberhoust]

@Uberhoust, I’m quite interested in the Nicrew light if the light still operates after an outage even though on a different lighting cycle.

I have been through multiple power outages and the "pro single channel" nicrew ramp timer has kept the program, but loses the current time. I haven't bought one in the last few years, so I cannot say to the current model. The nicrew dual channel ramp timer does not seem to work as well during a power outage, I have one of those but don't use it anymore. The other thing to be aware of is that the more electronics on board the light the more questionable it will be to power from a source that has variable voltage, this is what the ramp timer is controlling (voltage or current haven't really checked). So if your lights have timers or additional settings that control the lights then a ramp timer may not work. My Nicrew G2 lamp will flicker if I set the ramp timer below 30% output, my other Nicrew lamps will not flicker even the one that has full RGB control. Overall, I am happy with how my ramp timers work, for me they were inexpensive, a pain to program, and I will say they work better with simpler lights. The other thing I like about the single channel pro timer is that they will go back to the program after manually turning the lights on.

This is the timer and on the features it mentions keeping the program during power outage. https://www.amazon.ca/NICREW-Aquarium-ClassicLED-BrightLED-Connectors/dp/B07WT8VK28