Tropiquarium 88 Lighting Upgrade

[MoreCoffee]

Does anybody have any experience of upgrading the lighting in Tropiquarium hoods ?

One of my tanks is a Tropiquarium 88 (130Ltr) that comes with an integral lighting unit & timer in the hood.
The stock lighting is 2 x 24" 18W tubes, behind a clear cover. I have fitted reflectors behind both
tubes to try make the best of the available lighting. It was my first tank (now got 4) so was not bought
with any knowledge about lighting levels required for good plant growth with CO2

What I want to do is to upgrade the lighting to maximise plant growth. Due to the design of the inside of the
molded tank hood, I dont think that fitting a third tube is feasible, nor would it accept any longer tubes.
So i think my best way forward is to remove the current light fitting/ballast and go for T5 tubes, I think that
to get the best lighting I can within the limited space, it may be best to go for T5 compact tubes.
I'd be happy to fit normal (non compact) T5 tubes if that is my only way forward.

I'm hoping I'd still be able to connect the wiring up to the timer unit, but this is not essential.


Any suggestions appreciated.......


This is the best pic I can find on the web that shows the inside of the hood ........

I can take a pic of my tank and post if it it will help !

Regards
Mr G

 

[andyj]

If you need any help with wiring up the lights when you fit them, drop me a PM

I've now stripped apart and reassembled two Tropiquarium hoods Wiring's pretty simple to be honest.

I've also got the parts and facilities to repair your timer when it eventually stops working properly £10 repair fee !!!

Andy

 

[MoreCoffee]

Thanks Andy....

PM on it's way

 

[smithrc]

Our planted tank was in a trop88... Running standard light setup but with Denerle tubes and reflectors - results were good

If your looking to go mad then it'll be easy to get 2 power compacts in there.

the 55W's are 21" long - 110 wats anyone 8)

 

[Bloo]

I ripped my whole Tropiquarium hood apart to upgrade lighting.
See this thread for "how to" - though there's not much to it really apart from ripping it apart and adding new lights. Wasn't that hard at all
See the result around post #14

If your looking to go mad then it'll be easy to get 2 power compacts in there.

Just take care with the Interpet Compacts - I remember seeing some threads in the planted section on them and how incredibly faulty they are and burn out pretty quickly. Perhaps do a search to locate it.

 

[smithrc]

I ripped my whole Tropiquarium hood apart to upgrade lighting.
See this thread for "how to" - though there's not much to it really apart from ripping it apart and adding new lights. Wasn't that hard at all
See the result around post #14

If your looking to go mad then it'll be easy to get 2 power compacts in there.

Just take care with the Interpet Compacts - I remember seeing some threads in the planted section on them and how incredibly faulty they are and burn out pretty quickly. Perhaps do a search to locate it.

true - aparently Interpet have altered the design and recalled the faulty produces...

 

[MoreCoffee]

Thanks all,

I have a 120cm luminaire (4 x 36W T5's) that is currently not in use (the 240l tank is not setup yet) I'm going to try this over the Trop88 for a couple of days with just 2 of the tubes running.
I'll be a bit too long, but OK for a temporary trial run. That should give me a good idea of the effect of the extra lighting.

smithrc:
Thanks, I think I've got the default lighting as good as I can with the existing hardware and added reflectors.
I'm getting decent plant growth with my added CO2 but some of my plants could do with more light.
I moved my Hemianthus Callitrichodies from the Trop88 to another tank with much better lighting and it
started pearling within a couple of hours .... it never did in the Trop ! So it's time for an upgrade !

Bloo:
Wonderful ! Remind me to put you on my Christams card list !
Armed wiith your description, pics and andyj's wiring diagrams I'm sure I can get this upgraded without too much trouble.

I'll take a few pics during the conversion, if it works out OK I'll post the results.

Now if I can just find the time to do it .......

 

[Bloo]

Bloo:
Wonderful ! Remind me to put you on my Christams card list !
Armed wiith your description, pics and andyj's wiring diagrams I'm sure I can get this upgraded without too much trouble.

I'll take a few pics during the conversion, if it works out OK I'll post the results.

Now if I can just find the time to do it .......

No probs It didn't take that long really and the difference is remarkable and quite clear in the vast plant growth since the major increase in light. I just never got enough light even with reflectors.

Good luck ! Look forward to see how you tackle it.

 

[smithrc]

While your modding - add moonlights too

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=46380

 

[andyj]

Good point Russ, need to get round to fitting my moonlights

Hmmm... I wonder if it's possible to fit a 240v relay in there, so that when the timer turns the main lights off, the moonlights get turned on.....

 

[MoreCoffee]

The Trop88 currently has 'moonlight' LED's installed.
They were the best option with the current hardware setup.

Look pretty good though, especially at less than £10 8)

The male gourami loves it ....

They are on a seperate power supply and fitted with a timer switch so they come on 15 mins before the main lights go off.
Then they go off after a few hours to give the tank some dark hours. Then back on again about 4am until the main lights come on.

Moolighting will be included !

Mr G

 

[MoreCoffee]

I think I've now got a plan for this lighting upgrade......

2 x 36W T5 compacts @ £12.99 each.
1 x Twin T5 starter @ £32.99

Total = £ 58.97 - thats the price without shopping around for the best prices.



With 72W over 28 UK gallons (max) that puts me above 2.5WPG, and there will obviously be less than
the max 28 gallons in the tank, so even better.

The tubes are 16" long so I think they should fit under the existing cover and thus avoid removing inside
of the hood. If I'm lucky I can also get them to work with the timer.

The only thing I think I may have to look at is the heat generated by the tubes, however the Trop88 hood
has ventilation slits already in it ... might just need to include a fan unit to keep things cool.

....This prompts me to ask a question ...

If 130ltrs = 34.35 US Gallons and 28.60 UK Gallons.
What measurement (UK or US) do we use when calculating Watts per Gallon (does it even matter) ?

With the upgrade I'm thinking of it's the difference between 2.1wpg and 2.5 wpg !

Mr G

 

[Bloo]

....This prompts me to ask a question ...

If 130ltrs = 34.35 US Gallons and 28.60 UK Gallons.
What measurement (UK or US) do we use when calculating Watts per Gallon (does it even matter) ?

With the upgrade I'm thinking of it's the difference between 2.1wpg and 2.5 wpg !

Mr G

US gallons - and as far as I know it assumes you are already using reflectors.

 

[MoreCoffee]

US gallons - and as far as I know it assumes you are already using reflectors.

Thanks Bloo.

Using US gallons will still put me above 2WPG.

There may even be room in the hood to use 55W compact T5's, 2 of those would push the tanks to
about 3.5WPG, then I'd have to keep well on top of things to avoid a mass of algae.

Hmmmm ........ decisions, decisions

I may need to seek some advice from one of the planted tank guru's

 

[andyj]

Good work mate

Will be interesting to see your results.... might look at doing something similair on my Trop 88 !!!

I will try and get that wiring diagram done for you today. But to be honest, if you're pretty good with electrics (which I assume you are if you're looking at tackling this project yourself) then it's all pretty self explanatory really.....

I can see if being any major problem getting the Compacts to work via the timer.... the only tricky bit will be trying to fit the ballast inside the hood.... althought there is quite a big space in there already for the std ballast.

Andy