Cheap Lighting for 75 Gallon Aquarium?? Plants I want listed :)

dani_starr

dani_starr

AC Members
Aug 6, 2011
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California
Real Name
Dani :)
So I know lighting can be VERY expensive. But since I'll be making more in a couple months, I am going to splurge a little and for once, have the set up that I want and can be proud of (and since it'll be in my bedroom, everytime someone comes over I am going to be a major creeper "Hey, you have to come to my bedroom real quick, I want to show you something..")

Fauna will be (just in case anyone is interested):
~1 Senegal Bichir (my center piece)
~7 Turquioise rainbowfish
~Pair Opaline Gouramis
~2 Very Blue Marble Angelfish (GORGEOUS FISH!)
~*possibly* 2 Leopard Ctenopoma (or just 2 female blue gouramis or 2 more rainbowfish)

Flora (I want for SURE)
~Vals/Jungle Vals
~Anubias
~Crypts
~Lotus plant (I think that's what they are called)
~Dwarf Sagittara (that's the small green ish plant that sends out runners and is for the foreground, right?)
~Subwassertang

Any anything else that is fairly cheap, easy, and DOES NOT REQUIRE CO2.

My substrate will be eco complete. The light on my 75 gallon aquarium is a single 26 watt bulb, which I know won't work. So are there any fixtures with bulbs out there for under $100 (with shipping) which would work for the plants I want?

(Also, since my fish are mostly going to be blue, any sort of color light which will help bring the blue/blue greens out?)

Thanks!
 
You can definitely find a light fixture under $100 that will fit your needs.

http://www.aquatraders.com/LED-Freshwater-Bright-p/56205.htm
These Beamworks LEDs have gotten great reviews on fish forums, I'm considering getting one for my 20 long. They have actinic lights for the moonlight feature, which I think will work to bring out the blue in your fish :) LED lights are on the cold side anyway. You can't beat the price, plus no replacement bulbs to buy EVER (not so for T5s...which get dim fairly fast compared to standard fluorescent, in my limited experience) and it only uses 11 watts! The same sort of fixture by Marineland will run you more than twice this much.

If you want to go with more conventional T5s, they also offer this fixture:
http://www.aquatraders.com/48-inch-2x54W-T5-Aquarium-Light-Fixture-p/52123p.htm
It's 108 watts. When I had a dual Hagen GLO light (same wattage) it bothered me how hot it got, that's because I was resting it directly on the glass. Come to think of it, that's probably why the bulbs had such a short life for me. I imagine if the light were up on brackets it would stay significantly cooler.

Interesting to note, is what poor reviews this fixture has:
http://www.amazon.com/Aqueon-Corali...M8T2/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1334910902&sr=8-4
Even though it is a name brand fixture! People are generally very happy with the above two Odyssea lights, in my reading (and I've researched both of these Aquatraders fixtures quite a bit)

The moral of the story is, don't always assume a name brand product is a higher quality product! It is often so, but not always. The bad thing about Aquatraders is their customer service has a reputation for being poor, especially as far as being difficult to contact and receive follow up. Marineland (who's parent company is United Pet Group) and Aqueon (Central Aquatics) have excellent warranty departments, I've made use of both of them and gotten excellent results.
 
Hi
I use two 4 foot shop light fixtures with daylight tubes. Cost less than 40 bucks . total.
More than adequet for most plants . gary
 
If you live in a state with a lot of indoor horticulture or hydroponic shops you can sometimes score used lights there. I scored a 4 bulb t5-ho fixture for just barely over 100. they have anything you want in size and power. usually they will hook you up with bulbs too. actinic bulbs will bring out the fishes color but wont do much for your plants. so keep that in mind.
 
garyfla said:
Hi
I use two 4 foot shop light fixtures with daylight tubes. Cost less than 40 bucks . total.
More than adequet for most plants . gary
Click to expand...

Gary,

Care to elelaborate more on this? Did you make it, where did you get the shop light fixtures and bulbs? Links please or brand names would be EXTREMELY helpful :) Did you get it all like at a place like home depot? Did it have to hang over the tank? (I'm 99.9% sure that I can't have anything hanging from the ceiling at my apartment) Thanks so much! :)
 
COpathfindin said:
If you live in a state with a lot of indoor horticulture or hydroponic shops you can sometimes score used lights there. I scored a 4 bulb t5-ho fixture for just barely over 100. they have anything you want in size and power. usually they will hook you up with bulbs too. actinic bulbs will bring out the fishes color but wont do much for your plants. so keep that in mind.
Click to expand...

Hmmm I actally think there might be a hydroponic place near me. I'll have to check that out. So what if I had 2 actinic bulbs and then 2 other bulbs? Would that work? Or do I need all the 4 bulbs to be plant bulbs? Thanks :)
 
platytudes said:
You can definitely find a light fixture under $100 that will fit your needs.

http://www.aquatraders.com/LED-Freshwater-Bright-p/56205.htm
These Beamworks LEDs have gotten great reviews on fish forums, I'm considering getting one for my 20 long. They have actinic lights for the moonlight feature, which I think will work to bring out the blue in your fish :) LED lights are on the cold side anyway. You can't beat the price, plus no replacement bulbs to buy EVER (not so for T5s...which get dim fairly fast compared to standard fluorescent, in my limited experience) and it only uses 11 watts! The same sort of fixture by Marineland will run you more than twice this much.

If you want to go with more conventional T5s, they also offer this fixture:
http://www.aquatraders.com/48-inch-2x54W-T5-Aquarium-Light-Fixture-p/52123p.htm
It's 108 watts. When I had a dual Hagen GLO light (same wattage) it bothered me how hot it got, that's because I was resting it directly on the glass. Come to think of it, that's probably why the bulbs had such a short life for me. I imagine if the light were up on brackets it would stay significantly cooler.

Interesting to note, is what poor reviews this fixture has:
http://www.amazon.com/Aqueon-Corali...M8T2/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1334910902&sr=8-4
Even though it is a name brand fixture! People are generally very happy with the above two Odyssea lights, in my reading (and I've researched both of these Aquatraders fixtures quite a bit)

The moral of the story is, don't always assume a name brand product is a higher quality product! It is often so, but not always. The bad thing about Aquatraders is their customer service has a reputation for being poor, especially as far as being difficult to contact and receive follow up. Marineland (who's parent company is United Pet Group) and Aqueon (Central Aquatics) have excellent warranty departments, I've made use of both of them and gotten excellent results.
Click to expand...

I am liking the LED freshwater lights, but will they work for plants? Is there anyway to calculate how many watts it would total or something so I can figure out if have 1, 2, or 3 watts per gallon? Also, would I want or 2 fixtures? I was reading a review, and someone said they bought too and it didn't cover the tank front to back.

After vaccuuming most the dead spiders and other creepy insects from my light fixture that came with the tank, it is a light red bulb, and had a number "26" on the underneath. (granted, I was too chicken too remove the bulb due to 2 possibly alive spiders or just really stuck dead ones that wouldn't come out). I'm thinking it was 26 watts then.

I have another bulb that is left over from my 55 gallon that was sitting at the post office for the last 3 months. It's a 1" Aqua Glow T8 18,000K 40 watt bulb for Freshwater and Planted Aquariums. The red bulb in the light fixture now is like 1.5" wide I woud say. Could I put the smaller bulb in that light fixture, or is it only made for the larger 1.5" or something diameter bulbs?

Thanks Nicole!
 
It doesn't work that way with LEDs. You can measure lumens, and that's about the only thing it has in common with other kinds of lighting. I don't see the spectrum or wattage being measured the same way. These LEDs should give you an adequate amount of light for low light plants. Most of the plants you describe are low light. If you want to get two fixtures, it will make it tricky to feed the fish since I imagine they will take up most of the room on the top. If you really want to get two fixtures then I'd probably recommend the Aqueon/Coralife Aqualight fixture because it's so slim, definitely T5s are slimmer. However the dual light fixture is already 108 watts. I wouldn't really recommend using two fixtures.

T8 and T12 bulbs work in standard fluorescent fixtures. One is thicker, one is thinner, but they all fit as long as they are the proper length. T5 (those really skinny bulbs) of course, won't fit. A red bulb (I guess for a snake?) won't work, but the other (Aqua Glow) bulb should. IMO though, it's going to look pretty crappy mixing the crisp bright white light from LEDs with the standard fluorescents. It would also look weird to have one light sitting flush, and one light elevated on brackets. You can always try it and see. I have no idea what an 18,000k color spectrum looks like, I've never seen that before.

This is a shop light:
http://www.lowes.com/ProductDisplay...gId=10051&cmRelshp=req&rel=nofollow&cId=PDIO1
You don't need to know brands or anything special. Just look for a 48" or 4 foot shop light aka work light, they all cost about 25-30 bucks. Most of them need to be suspended somehow, that is what they're made for. They take standard 48" or 4' fluorescent lights. You can use aquarium specific bulbs (like Aqua Rays or Aqueon brand) or use Daylight bulbs, Daylight bulbs are the cheapest (they are used in the home) but look very yellow to my eye, as does Cool White.

Many people do use them on their aquariums. Just Google shop light planted tank. This is a good example of how they look:
http://i951.photobucket.com/albums/ad358/wkndracer/55-10low tech/DSC05975.jpg

I personally hate all the light they splash out, and would never want so much light spilling out into my bedroom...but that's up to you! They're definitely going to be your cheapest option.
 
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Cheap can cost in the long run. Standard shop lights with electronic ballasts can be a great solution for fish or planted tanks. Ideally you want to mix bulbs for optimal light. That will mean a trip to an electrical supply shop for 6500k - 6700k lamps/tubes/bulbs. At big box stores they will be sold as plant lights.

Two T5HO lamps with decent reflectors spaced evenly across the top of a 70/75g tank is just about perfect for a planted tank. Your local hydroponics store can sell you two single strips with decent reflectors for about $100.00.

I'm running twenty four, 3 watt LEDs at 670 mA over my 70g. Twelve warm white and twelve cool white. I'm happy and plants are growing. Cost for this DIY set up was about $100.00. The best part is it replaced a four lamp Power Compact fixture. Not buying new bulbs and the energy savings over just nine months will cover the cost of the LED fixture. The 2nd best feature - very little heat, no fan, and no noise.
 
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