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Re: [APD] Help With My New Tank!! -- or - Bravely into the Shadows



Thanks everyone for your replies.  Its been really
educational.

I went to the home depot today and realized that these
energy saving bulbs they sell are actually florescant
tubes bent into a compact shape.  (Don't know why I
didn't realize this before)

Can anyone comment on the suitability of using these
bulbs?  Metal Halides just seem too expensive right
now.  I was thinking of using numerous of these
compact florescant bulbs inside a socket which
directed their light downwards instead of out to all
sides...

How many watts total would I need?  Note: tank is 24
high.

Thanks again!!

Shalom
--- Bill Wichers <billw at waveform_net> wrote:

> 
> >I have decided to discard the heating cable idea.
> >Mainly because I can't seem to get a hold of them
> and
> >if I could they are probably out of budget!
> 
> You can get by fine without them, although if you
> ever want to try them 
> later it's a major undertaking to install the cables
> in tank after it's 
> setup. Probably not really worth worrying about too
> much though since they 
> aren't necessary for a successful tank. People used
> to build their own 
> cables frequently in years past, but lately that
> seems to be an unusual 
> occurrence (probably do to what I think may be a
> decline in the use of 
> heating cables in the hobby).
> 
> >I will be building a sump in the future but for now
> I
> >think the tank will be setup with either the Magnum
> >350 Pro or Eheim 2215.  Which would you recommend?
> 
> I only use circulation pumps myself so I'll skip
> this one... I would 
> recommend thinking about a sump though. All you
> really need is a plastic 
> tub that will fit in the space you have available.
> Rubbermaid makes a lot 
> of tanks, tubs, and buckets that are FDA approved
> for food use and 
> agricultural use and any of those are suitable for
> use with your aquarium. 
> Their 10-20 gallon commercial trash cans with the
> dollies make excellent 
> water change accessories, BTW.
> 
> >I took your advice and got a hold of that book.
> >Thankfully, they had it at the library!!  It, along
> >with another 2 books I found, have convinced me to
> use
> >soil as my base substrate.  If its potentially
> better,
> >and cheaper, the extra work is well worth it.
> 
> My understanding is that soil substrates can be a
> problem due to their 
> richness. You are probably better off using the "old
> fashioned" method of 
> using plain gravel with some laterite mixed in --
> that's probably the 
> cheapest way to go that will be workable and easy to
> maintain in the long 
> term. If you can scrounge up the money, Flourite is
> well worth the expense, 
> and you'll probably like the look of it too.
> 
> >Finally, I am glad to hear my spotlight idea is
> >feasible.  I also read today that metal halides are
> >essentially the same as halogen lights.  Would
> >numerous halogen lights be able to provide the type
> of
> >light I require.  (No doubt I could get the
> intensity
> >necessary)
> 
> Shadows are neat, and I personally think the
> shimmering of the water 
> ripples and the pattern they make on the bottom is
> very nice to look at. 
> You won't be able to do that with fluorescent
> lighting though since the 
> fluorescent lights emit a very even light that
> results in very few shadows 
> and no water ripple light patterns at all.
> 
> Metal Halide (MH) lights are NOT AT ALL LIKE halogen
> lights! I have also 
> seen this published before so maybe some basic
> light-ology is in order:
> 
> There are several primary types of lights around,
> and those are 
> incandescent lights (with filaments), fluorescent
> lights (which use a 
> primary light source of one wavelength to stimulate
> the emission of other 
> wavelengths from one or more phosphors), HID (High
> Intensity Discharge, or 
> "arc") lights (which generate an electric arc --
> basically a big and 
> continuous spark -- in a rarified atmosphere), and
> solid-state lights (LEDs).
> 
> Halogen lights are incandescent, using filaments.
> They're a bit better than 
> regular light bulbs, but not enough to be
> particularly useful in aquariums. 
> I did try using some small 10 watt halogen lights to
> accent a tank once 
> that was lit mainly with fluorescents, and it isn't
> worth the effort. 
> Interesting trivia: I've been told that halogen
> lights were originally 
> developed by GE for the wing-tip lights of the
> Douglas DC3 aircraft... The 
> amount of light you get out of incandescent lights
> -- even halogens -- is 
> so small compared to the heat they give off that
> they are unsuitable for 
> use in planted tanks.
> 
> Fluorescent lights are the most common aquarium
> light, using a mercury arc 
> to stimulate a phosphor coating inside the bulb that
> provides the light you 
> see. They are efficient and very useful in aquarium
> lighting, but since 
> they are a large, distributed light source they
> don't really produce any 
> shadows or wave effects. They are cheap though, so
> you will probably want 
> to consider them. PCF (Power Compact Fluorescent)
> lighting is probably the 
> best price/performance of any light on the market
> for most aquarium setups 
> with the possible exception of the very large tanks.
> Fluorescent are 
> generally about 6-8 times more efficient than
> incandescent (and halogen!) 
> lights -- you get a lot more light out for your watt
> in, and a lot less 
> heat for the same amount of light.
> 
> HID lights come in basically four flavors: Mercury
> Vapor (which is a 
> bluish-white light and the least efficient of the
> four), high pressure 
> sodium vapor (a yellow-orange light commonly used
> for security lighting and 
> on roads), low pressure sodium vapor (an orange
> light, but *extremely* 
> efficient), and metal halide (MH, a stark white
> light). For aquarium use MH 
> is the most suitable light, being very efficient but
> also producing light 
> that is both pleasing to look at and useful to the
> aquarium plants. MH 
> lights are usually said to be about a bit more
> efficient than fluorescent 
> lights, so you get a bit more light out of them per
> watt in than you would 
> with fluorescent. Although they seem to give off
> lots of heat, it's really 
> just that the heat they give off is concentrated in
> a smaller area. It's 
> actually easier to remove a small amount of very hot
> air (as is the case 
> with MH lights) than a large amount of warm air (as
> is the case with 
> fluorescents).
> 
> MH lighting is probably your best option if you want
> shadow and shimmer 
> effects from your lights. Since MH lights are
> point-source lights, the 
> water ripple patterns will cast their imagery on the
> bottom of the tank, 
> and plants and fish will produce shadows. The lights
> themselves don't have 
> to be expensive if you are willing to invest some
> time and effort to build 
> your own ballast assembly and possibly even the
> fixtures. It is possible to 
> get a ventilated aluminum enclosure from a surplus
> store, and the ballasts 
> from an electrical supply house, and then assemble
> the unit. That alone 
> will save you a lot of money even if you purchase
> the light fixtures 
> themselves from an aquarium lighting supplier. You
> can save even more money 
> by building your own light fixtures (they are really
> just a reflector and 
> socket with a simple enclosure to protect the bulb),
> or by using light 
> fixtures intended for hydroponics use.
> 
> Normal lighting using MH lights for a 125 gallon
> tank consists of three 175 
> watt lights. You don't say if you are using the
> standard 120 gallon size 
> (24" deep x 24" high x 48" long), or one of the 72"
> long designs. If you 
> are using a 48" long tank, you could try a single
> 175 or maybe a 250 watt 
> light placed closer to one end of the tank than the
> other so that one end 
> of the tank would be in shadow. With a 72" long tank
> try 
=== message truncated ===



	
		
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