Replacing light

[Hokieokieamy]

Hey all,

I have the 36 gallon Topfin bow front aquarium. The light isn’t working well and will still produce light but less of an amount. How should I go about replacing it? Do I need to buy a whole new lid with the light or is there a way to just by a new light?

Any help appreciated!

 

[10 Tanks]

Hello. Aquarium lights that come in a kit are only designed to see into the tank and not for growing aquatic plants. If you want to grow plants, then you'll need a light that's strong enough to product 2 to 3 watts for every gallon of tank water. For your 36 gallon tank, you'll need a light or lights that give you a combined wattage of roughly 120 watts. The latest in LEDs are nice and not too pricey. I use them over some of my tanks. It may be difficult to find lighting to work with a bowfront tank, but i'm sure they're available. The simplest and cheapest lights are florescent. These will work well too.

10

 

[Hokieokieamy]

Hello. Aquarium lights that come in a kit are only designed to see into the tank and not for growing aquatic plants. If you want to grow plants, then you'll need a light that's strong enough to product 2 to 3 watts for every gallon of tank water. For your 36 gallon tank, you'll need a light or lights that give you a combined wattage of roughly 120 watts. The latest in LEDs are nice and not too pricey. I use them over some of my tanks. It may be difficult to find lighting to work with a bowfront tank, but i'm sure they're available. The simplest and cheapest lights are florescent. These will work well too.

10

Okay! How do you attach the new set of lights to the hood?

 

[Colin_T]

How long have you had the tank and light?
It might be covered under warranty.

LED lights don't lose intensity like fluorescent globes do. So if you have a LED light unit and it is not producing as much light as normal, it is either faulty or there is something reducing the light getting into the tank.

Does the light have a clear lens/ cover to stop water getting onto the LEDs?
Maybe give that a clean and also the coverglass on the aquarium (if it has one).

 

[Hokieokieamy]

How long have you had the tank and light?
It might be covered under warranty.

LED lights don't lose intensity like fluorescent globes do. So if you have a LED light unit and it is not producing as much light as normal, it is either faulty or there is something reducing the light getting into the tank.

Does the light have a clear lens/ cover to stop water getting onto the LEDs?
Maybe give that a clean and also the coverglass on the aquarium (if it has one).

Hmmm it’s hard to say how long we’ve had it - maybe 3 or 4 years? I will take a look into a potential warranty and try to clean the lens to see if that helps. If it does not and it’s no longer covered under warranty, any recommendations for replacing the lights on a bow front tank?

 

[Colin_T]

Any sort of LED light can go above the tank as long as it has a Kelvin rating around 6500K and doesn't blind the fish. You can buy outdoor floodlights (spotlights) from hardware stores that go outside but can also go above a fish tank.

The light is primarily for plants and so you can see the fish, so anything that covers that is fine.

 

[10 Tanks]

Hmmm it’s hard to say how long we’ve had it - maybe 3 or 4 years? I will take a look into a potential warranty and try to clean the lens to see if that helps. If it does not and it’s no longer covered under warranty, any recommendations for replacing the lights on a bow front tank?

Hello again. i used to have a bow front tank years ago and seems to me I decided to increase the lighting by getting a glass, bi fold canopy that fit the tank and set up a stronger light that I hung above the tank. I have a couple of standard tanks with the lighting hanging above, I used a couple of small hooks that I put into the ceiling above the tank and used a couple of long chains to support the light. I think it looks good. It works really well and with the light positioned above the tank, it's always out of the way when the tank needs some work. Just a thought.

10

 

[Magnum Man]

you don't have your location filled out, so we have no idea what country you are in... it looks like that brand in the USA is most often sold at Petsmart... the tanks I can see now, look like LED, lit covers, but 3-4 years ago, were likely fluorescent...

does the light unit lift off of the cover on your tank??? if so, can you see if it's fluorescent ( fluorescent are long glass tubes that emit light, LED's would be thinner, & have lots of little dots that emit the light ) if it's fluorescent, those bulbs go bad after a while, 3-4 years would be a long life for a fluorescent light bulb & then they get dark on the ends, & start producing less light, until they completely fail... but the bulbs are easily changeable... is there a chance you could take a picture of the cover & post it on the forum???

 

[Hokieokieamy]

Any sort of LED light can go above the tank as long as it has a Kelvin rating around 6500K and doesn't blind the fish. You can buy outdoor floodlights (spotlights) from hardware stores that go outside but can also go above a fish tank.

The light is primarily for plants and so you can see the fish, so anything that covers that is fine.

Okay, so these would not attach to the lid or they would?

 

[Hokieokieamy]

you don't have your location filled out, so we have no idea what country you are in... it looks like that brand in the USA is most often sold at Petsmart... the tanks I can see now, look like LED, lit covers, but 3-4 years ago, were likely fluorescent...

does the light unit lift off of the cover on your tank??? if so, can you see if it's fluorescent ( fluorescent are long glass tubes that emit light, LED's would be thinner, & have lots of little dots that emit the light ) if it's fluorescent, those bulbs go bad after a while, 3-4 years would be a long life for a fluorescent light bulb & then get dark on the ends, & produce less light, until they completely fail... but they are easily changeable... is there a chance you could take a picture of the cover & post it on the forum???

I am not currently at home but I looked up my tank and it’s LED lights

 

[Magnum Man]

LED's go bad too, & more often than the industry likes to admit... if the LED light unit can be separated from the cover, you can replace that unit... so that's the next step, to see if it can be separated... if it can't be removed ( if it's in effect, built in to the cover ) you may have to either buy a new cover, or come up with an alternative cover like @10 Tanks ... suggested, if that's the case, there are tons of lights available to replace it with...

 

[MaloK]

This looks like it would be an easy fit, directly in your current hood for your tank.

MingDak 24/7 Submersible Aquarium Light

 

[sharkweek178]

I realize that this is a bit of closing the barn door after advice. But it's a good idea to have a spare set of lights (and a heater) on hand in case something happens to the old one.

 

[Uberhoust]

have the 36 gallon Topfin bow front aquarium. The light isn’t working well and will still produce light but less of an amount. How should I go about replacing it? Do I need to buy a whole new lid with the light or is there a way to just by a new light?

I am pretty sure I have the same setup. If so they come with a light that mounts right into the canopy cover, mine with 2 rows of leds contained in 2 separate glass tubes.

In my case I had to make a new cover for the tank, but because of the shape of the tank I had to cut it out of lexan, which would have been expensive but I got a piece of scrap that was going to be tossed from work to make the lid. I left a narrow strip along the back for the filter pipes, heater, and air hoses. This cover fits inside the rim on the little plastic shelf, and does not extend above the tank like the original canopy does. I then purchased a 30" light bar for an aquarium, I used one of the Nicrew lights, and that was placed over the lexan cover. Overall the setup worked much better with the modifications.

The original top fin canopies are a real pain to get parts for and their design doesn't do anything to provide any protection of the light, it is totally exposed to the water surface in my case.

In the end the bow front aquarium is the one fish tank I decided I don't want to deal with again and sold it last fall at a garage sale. In my case I always felt like I was trying to look through a reflection that seemed to follow me around the room.

I still have a couple of top fin fish tanks and both are made quite solid, but it has been my experience with all of them that their canopies they come with are sub par in my opinion. Getting replacement covers even for the rectangular ones was difficult and required customization because they are non-standard sizes and even getting top fin cover glass doesn't always work with the top fin aquariums.