T5 Lighting In A Juwel Trigon 190

[GUB]

I have started to keep a few live plants in my tank and would like to expand the number and variety I keep. Having checked out a few threads in the planted tank forum its clear that I really need to upgrade my lighting in order to do this (as its quite a deep tank I think it might look better with T5 lighting aside from anything else). However the shape of the trigon 190 makes this something of a problem.

Has anyone else been succesful in installing T5 lighting in this tank and what did they use? I see that arcadia had an I-Bar (AI125) but I understand that it is no longer in production (at least it is no longer listed on their site). Are there any 'kits' available to 'replace' the existing T8 fittings with T5 lighting (I dont mean just changing the sockets as I realise this doesnt work).

Be good to hear from anyone who has done this succesfully and anyone with ideas on how I can achieve this.

Thanks in advance!

 

[chuts]

I will be watching this thread carefully as I will be attempting something similar with my trigon 190 later this month.

I will be DIYing in some interpet PC t5's, not sure how or where yet though. Seem to be the cheapest way of getting powerful lighting under that restricive hood.

Mike

 

[BHornsey]

Hi guys,

I've got a Trigon 190. I tried the Arcadia I Bar (2 x 24w, 7800k tubes) and left the covers off. Leaving the covers off caused a little bit of evaporation but it's never more than 2L p/day.

GUB - I wasn't aware it had gone off production. I only bought mine from SwellUK in January.

It wasn't too bad. However, the Trigon shape means that with straight tubes, only the centre is really illuminated (same with the standard lighting). The back of the tank doesn't get such good light. It wasn't bad though, and would be fine for a low light planted tank.
I finally set up a 70w Metal Halide pendant which gives nice overall lighting. Have a look at the link in my signature.

Which leads me to..... does anyone want an Arcadia I Bar (2 x 24w, 7800k tubes with reflectors) - £50 - half price

 

[GUB]

I assume its out of production as it the smallest one on the Arcadia website = AI225?

Anyway thanks for that BrianH, interesting what you said about the light not really getting into the depths of the trigon. Just thinking about this now, wondering whether I could fit some form of support to the back 'lid' section and add a compact T5 to that to give some depth to the lighting.