Too Much Light?

[tonyhipps]

Hi,

This is my first post on this forum and I could use some feed back on a lighting idea.

I have a 72 gallon bow-front with 160 Watts of light. Here is my idea and I would appreciate all input from the emensley experienced.

I am planning on building a hood for my planted tank that will house 4 - 100 watt spiral compact fluorescent bulbs 5000K cri 96 ( These bulbs screw into a mogul base and are originally designed for a photographic studio). The manufacturer claims that the output is the same as a 1000 watt incandescent halogen which would give me the equivalent to 4000 Watts. I may also add 1 40 watt plant tube. See Attachment.

I understand that I will also need high CO2 output and other fertilizers.

P.S. Cooodn't find the spell check

Any thoughts?

 

[kenneth_kpe]

440 watts ??? that is a lot of lighting , i just breezed thru what you posted but from what i understood, with that much lighting you would most certainly need co2 and a fertilization regime

 

[IovaykInD]

I don't think that applies to planted tanks. If it uses 100 watts, the output will be 100, not 1000w.

Definately c02 and fertilizer. It will be very hard to keep algae free if you don't start off right.

 

[tonyhipps]

Thanks for the replys.

Now I'm confused because I read somewhere that the wattage per gallon rule was originally adopted for the regular fluorescent tubes also .03 watts of a compact fluorescent were equal to 1 watt of a fluorescent tube and that a spiral compact has an even greater output than a regular compact.

Am I over thinking this?

 

[kenneth_kpe]

umm yes you are to put it simply just consider the watts of the bulbs as watts compact fluorescents are similar to t8's IMO im not so sure about the spiral ones best get a reflector if your gonna maximize all that lighting btw

 

[littleimp]

I think tony's right on this one. I believe watts is used in the wpg rule to measure the amount of light instead of something difficult like lumens. Those spiral compacts are very bright to the eyes compared to standard lamps. I used to work in a service dept of a top studio light manufacturer (bowens) & we used these on one of our lights. I bought one of these & had it lighting up my sump!!

These lamps come in 6500k which would be better as 5000k is a bit warm.