[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: 220 watts of light on a 120 gallon?




On Sat, 22 Jan 2000, Melissa wrote:
 
> Ok-  heres one question.   Would 220 watts of lighting (compact 
> flourescents-the phazer 1V )  be sufficent?  The tank is 48X24X24...  Im 
> worried about the height of the tank.  Should I go with more watts?
> Any comments welcome.

With 220 watts you will probably be limited to slow growing plants.  If
you don't want that limitation then you need to go for more light.  Given
the depth of your tank, maybe 300 watts or more.
 
> Also-  I am going to be utilizing DIY co2 for the tank as well.   How do I 
> know how many bubbles is good?  I heard that you can buy bubble counters from 
> brewery shops.  Cheap too.  Has anyone used these before and would you 
> recommend them?  They sell ones in pet warehouse in the mid twenty dollar 
> range so if I can buy one at a brewery for 2 bucks and it works, then why 
> not?  

If you stick with 220 watts of light you may not need CO2.

DIY CO2 isn't a great choice for a tank this big.  You're going to have a
fairly large investment in the tank, lights and filters so it makes sense
(to me anyway) to put out the extra for a pressurized CO2 system.

With yeast CO2 you should be aware that the CO2 production is not
constant; it is high in a new batch then drops sharply soon after startup.  
The flow rate also drifts with temperature.  And the flow rate is (at
best) difficult to adjust. You will probably need the equivalent of at
least four 2-liter reactors to supply your tank.  I say equivalent,
because you can use a smaller number of larger reactors.  In order to
avoid radical swings in the CO2 flow you will probably want to stagger the
bottle changes.  Individual batches probably won't do you any good for
more than 4 weeks, so using 4 reactors and changing 1 a week is probably a
workable schedule.

The maintenance schedule for a large DIY system is enough to convince most
people to use pressurized CO2.


Roger Miller