craniac24
01-11-2006, 12:34 PM
Ok...let me preface my question by asking you to answer my questions like I am a pre-kindegartner. I know less than nothing about lighting systems and when the LFS tries to explain things to me, using terms like lux, kelvin, warm spectrum, cool spectrum, etc...i get dizzy.
Anyway, here's the bottom line. I have a 155 gallon bowfront tank. Dimension are approx 72L x 24w x 24h. At first, I simply plopped on the old 4 foot long dual fluorescents that I had on my old 72 gallon. Immediately, I realized that this would not do, as the light was not nearly bright enough.
So off I go to the LFS. The guy convinces me to go for a very expensive T5 setup which was comprised of 4 "mid-day" bulbs and 2 blue bulbs that I don't know what the technical term for them is. I found his level of knowledge to be very high, and I trusted his judgement when it came to meeting the needs that I described to him. Those needs were:
1) A nice bright "white appearance"
2) Something that would enhance the colors of the discus (my fish comprise pretty much every color...blue, brown, red, orange, white)
3) Someting that would be helpful to plants, but not so much that algae would overtake the tank
Anywho...I took home the setup and DOH! The damn thing was too big (wide) for my tank! I wouldn't be able to open the hinged doors on my glass top. Nevertheless, I fired it up just to see what the light looked like, and my feelings were mixed.
I felt that the lights were obviously bright enough (possibly even too bright), and they definitely brought out the colors of the fish. However, to me the color of the light appreared a little "yellow" as opposed to white. For a $500 lighting setup I felt like even if it did fit my tank, I wasn't completely satisfied with the way it looked. So...it's going back and now I'm at square one.
Please give me some suggestions as to what might work well for me, given the things that I'm looking to accomplish. I called the guy at the LFS to tell him that it didn't fit, and when I asked him for some more options he recommended that we talk about a power compact setup. Ok...that's fair, but I'm guessing that I'm going to have the same challenges with regard to picking out the right kind of bulbs to serve my purpose.
Any thoughts are appreciated. Thanks!
Anyway, here's the bottom line. I have a 155 gallon bowfront tank. Dimension are approx 72L x 24w x 24h. At first, I simply plopped on the old 4 foot long dual fluorescents that I had on my old 72 gallon. Immediately, I realized that this would not do, as the light was not nearly bright enough.
So off I go to the LFS. The guy convinces me to go for a very expensive T5 setup which was comprised of 4 "mid-day" bulbs and 2 blue bulbs that I don't know what the technical term for them is. I found his level of knowledge to be very high, and I trusted his judgement when it came to meeting the needs that I described to him. Those needs were:
1) A nice bright "white appearance"
2) Something that would enhance the colors of the discus (my fish comprise pretty much every color...blue, brown, red, orange, white)
3) Someting that would be helpful to plants, but not so much that algae would overtake the tank
Anywho...I took home the setup and DOH! The damn thing was too big (wide) for my tank! I wouldn't be able to open the hinged doors on my glass top. Nevertheless, I fired it up just to see what the light looked like, and my feelings were mixed.
I felt that the lights were obviously bright enough (possibly even too bright), and they definitely brought out the colors of the fish. However, to me the color of the light appreared a little "yellow" as opposed to white. For a $500 lighting setup I felt like even if it did fit my tank, I wasn't completely satisfied with the way it looked. So...it's going back and now I'm at square one.
Please give me some suggestions as to what might work well for me, given the things that I'm looking to accomplish. I called the guy at the LFS to tell him that it didn't fit, and when I asked him for some more options he recommended that we talk about a power compact setup. Ok...that's fair, but I'm guessing that I'm going to have the same challenges with regard to picking out the right kind of bulbs to serve my purpose.
Any thoughts are appreciated. Thanks!