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Re: Lighting ... ineffective



>I have a 45G tank ( 36x24X12 ) with a twin bulb shoplite ( yes, it's 48
>inches )  The bulbs are GE wide spectrum, 5 months old. At first the
>tank was mighty bright, but now it's not. 

All fluorescents have a burn-in period when they give off up to 20% more
light than they're designed to over the long haul. At 5 months old, your
lamps might be finished with their burn-i period and are now producing the
light they're rated for. You need more lamps, not newer lamps. 

When designing your lighting, look at the "design lumens" or "average
lumens" rating for the lamps. These are what you can count on for a year or
more.

Have your plants grown in the 5 month period? If so, they could be shading
your tank too.

---------------------------------------------------

Greg. Tong
gtong at sirius_com (delivered by Cyberdog)
San Francisco, CA, USA

"Every infinity is composed of only two halves."