Lighting Requirements

[WrxAnt]

Guys,

I've just picked myself up a couple of 30x18x14 tanks and a stand which I intend to use for breeding and growing out discus.

Both tanks I intend to run BB with just heater, air stone and a box filter and do very regular water changes.

I've noticed in a lot of pictures of other peoples BB breeding tanks that they don't have the traditional flouro tube setup over the top of each tank.. if any supplementary lighting at all.

What is the lighting requirements for these sort of setups?

The tand stand is directly opposite a window where there is heaps of light coming in. Is this sufficient?

Or should I use the rooms lighting?

Or should I get individual globes over each of the tanks (they are one above the other)?

Cheers
Antony

[larry lob]

Hi Anthony,

1st if you get direct sunlight you are going to get a serious algie problem.
Type of light depends on fish, my pair that just bred hate any kind of tube light so i have a glass cover on the tank and the room light is enough for them.

My display tank has two 3" tube lights and the fish are fine, as to the type of light it depends i have been through loads and haven't settle to which yet, the list is endless but to name a few ...... aquaglow, sunglow and plantgrow they all have difrent spectrums of light some for plant groth and other for showing colours your better off asking at LFS or someone here might like to shed some light (excuse the pun).

however most will agree direct sunlight is a no no.

HTH

Larry

[WrxAnt]

Larry,.

My show tank has a 48" 40W tube on it and the plants are doing fine and the fish are fine.

I'm upgrading that to 2 x 48" tubes soon.

If room lighting is enough I might put in a 20W Flouro replacement for the standard light socket in the room. I think they're equivilent to 100W output of a standard globe :)

Being relatively new to discus and totally new to breeding especially I'm not after a big investment at this stage so using my std room lighting would be a real benefit!


Thanks for the reply.
Cheers
Antony

[peety]

I was having the same thoughts about lighting. I just pulled my breeding pair out of the large tank and put them in a breeding tank. They sat huddled in the corner for two days. :(
The minute I turned off my flouro's they came out, fed and laid eggs that night ;D ;D

Could be a fluke but I doubt it. They had heaps to run behind and shelter under in the large tank, but the bare bottom has to be a bit of a stress with even the smallest amount of lighting. 8)

Apparently you need to add a small amount of light once the fry appear so they can find mum and dad.

Works for me

peety

[ChloroPhil]

I would just go to your local home improvement store and invest in cheap shop lights. There's no need for special spectra or wattage and your hardware lights are a heck of a lot cheaper than anything an LFS will have.