# best lighting setup for a planted 55 gallon corner bowfront?



## Hoppy (Dec 24, 2005)

A good way to light that tank would be a 2 bulb T5HO fixture, but one that hangs about 10-12 inches above the top of the tank. That should give you the low light needed for a non-CO2 tank, without the light intensity being really high up near the waterline. A fixture like http://www.catalinaaquarium.com/product_info.php?cPath=71_136&products_id=1411 could look very good hanging above the top of the tank. There would be some light spillover, but it shouldn't be excessive.


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## captain_bu (Oct 20, 2007)

Since it sounds like you don't want to hang your fixture due to light spillage I would strongly advise against T5HO. T5NO would be a better choice or PC. The problem you may run into though if you don't suspend the light is getting even coverage front to back and into the corners due to the shape of the tank. Floating plants can be used to block and control the amount of light getting into the tank if necessary. I find that the colors of fancy guppies look better under reduced lighting too.


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## p0w_yangz (Jun 27, 2010)

i would get a mh pentagon fixture and hang like a foot above


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## Dave-H (Jul 29, 2010)

captain_bu said:


> Since it sounds like you don't want to hang your fixture due to light spillage I would strongly advise against T5HO. T5NO would be a better choice or PC. The problem you may run into though if you don't suspend the light is getting even coverage front to back and into the corners due to the shape of the tank. Floating plants can be used to block and control the amount of light getting into the tank if necessary. I find that the colors of fancy guppies look better under reduced lighting too.


Hi - Thank you for your reply. I definitely don't want to hang the fixture above, largely for cosmetic reasons (it's in the living room so my wife has a say  ).

Sorry, what did you mean by PC lights? Maybe if I use a less powerful light I can have them sitting flush on the glass, which looks best to my eye. The lights that came with the tank are an Aqueon 24 inch housing that matches perfectly the oak veneer on the tank (looks nice) with 2 x Coralife F18-T8-BP bulbs, each 10,000k. Those lights are exactly 20 inches from the substrate and the tank really looks nice with those lights on!

What I'm really looking for is a way to have a nice looking light setup like I have, but powerful enough lights to have nice live plants growing in the tank. Nothing more, really.

I asked if it was possible to use that same housing but change the bulbs for a more plant-friendly type of light, and I was told that it wasn't possible. I wonder if it is possible, though!


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## Hoppy (Dec 24, 2005)

If you are reasonably handy with tools, you can possibly fit two AH Supply 24 watt light kits into the existing housing http://www.ahsupply.com/18_or_24_w_kits.htm You would need to look at the fixture carefully to be sure you could remove all of the guts from it to get room for the AH Supply kits. That would give you good low light so you wouldn't need CO2.


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## Dave-H (Jul 29, 2010)

Thanks Hoppy, that looks like an awesome solution because I can fit it into my existing housing, thus solving my 'how it looks to the wife' problem.  I made an error up above, the corner unit can just fit a 30 inch housing, but the 30 inch housing that I have has 2 x 24 inch bulbs in it. So, if I did a retrofit I could actually fit in a 54 watt unit rather than 2 x 24 watt units - good option.

After discussing this with a trusted friend, I went to the lfs and bought a Coralife Freshwater Aqualight T-5 strip. This might be a winner because it sits right on the glass and barely heats up at all, produces nice looking light, and is actually a much lower profile than my existing housing so the cosmetic is good.

The 30 inch puts out 18 watts of 6700x and 18 watts of Colormax Full-Spectrum light. According to the lfs, this should give me a decent low lighting solution and it was very inexpensive. Only problem is that it doesn't light up the back of the tank well because the 30 inch unit only fits towards the front of the tank (due to the corner shape). However, there is quite a bit of room towards the back to add another 24 inch unit and the two combined should be more then enough to do some basic low-light plants that can be healthy without CO2.

They also had a very cool 12 inch LED that would give some ripple and make the back of the tank look awesome, I'm sure. However, it sits up a couple of inches off the glass so we are back at the same issue, trying to meet the cosmetic needs (simple top with no huge lights leaking out). 

Having TWO of these T-5 strips by adding the 24 inch version would add another 14 + 14 watts of light towards the back of the tank, for a total of 64 watts of T-5. According to the lfs, that is moving me closer to the 'moderate/mid' lighting range or on the upper range of the 'low light' and the plants should do great without any CO2. 

Does this sound like a good solution? I've already got the 30 inch on the tank and it looks great both in the water and on top of the tank!


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## Hoppy (Dec 24, 2005)

The 2 bulb T5NO light should give you low light intensity right under the fixture, but the intensity will drop off quite a bit towards the back. Adding a second 2 bulb T5NO light to light up the back gives you the low light intensity you need in that area. Since the fixtures are not going to be right against each other their light won't "mix" to give higher light to enough of a degree to be a problem. I think that would be a great solution.

Remember watts are the power consumed by the lights, not a measure of the amount of light the fixture provides. So, "watts per gallon" means nothing as far as light intensity goes. It is the type of light - T8, T5NO, T5HO, etc. that determines the intensity you get, and the length of the bulbs determine how much of the substrate gets light at that intensity. Obviously a 2 foot long bulb over a 4 foot long tank doesn't provide much light at the ends of the tank, and a 4 foot long bulb over a 2 foot long tank doesn't get any more light than if the bulb were 2 feet long, even though the 4 foot bulb draws about twice the wattage as the 2 foot long bulb.


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## Dave-H (Jul 29, 2010)

Hi Hoppy,

Thanks again for your input. I measure the tank and unfortunately the smallest 2 bulb t5no Coralife is 24 inches. Due to the corner shape, the light would actually be only 1.5 inches back from the main 30 inch light, so there would be plenty of light but it would still be a bit dark in the back of the tank.

Since my requirements are:

1. Must sit right on the glass, so that our living room corner stays neat and without light leaking out. See 'the wife' requirement up above! I don't have a canopy for the tank (I don't think they make one) so sleek and right-on-the-glass will work.

2. Must be able to fit into this corner in the rear of the tank. A square or triangular light would be perfect, but if there were a 12 inch version of the Coralife I could put it perpendicular to the other light and that would be a winner.

I was thinking that maybe this would work well!


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## Dave-H (Jul 29, 2010)

Or, perhaps I could get one of these and retrofit it with this 18 watt kit!

That would meet my requirements, but I was hoping for a ready-made solution


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## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

Corner tanks are the most challenging to light, IMO. I think you're going to be best off DIYing a fixture.


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## Dave-H (Jul 29, 2010)

I think I'm going to get two Current USA 12.25" Powerbrite LED Linking Module (10,000K Daylight) strips and put the in a V shape, so that they are just a few inches off of the back walls of the tank.This seems like a winner - it would sit flush on the glass, and light up the back of the tank nicely! Not that expensive, either. 

But I don't know how to do the math. Does anyone have an opinion on whether 2 of these would help to light up the darkish rear of my 55 gallon corner tank? I'm not sure how to compare them to the 2 x 9 watt CF fixture that I'm also considering, but that's a retrofit PITA. 

I want to have enough light to support the plants, but without CO2. So, it doesn't have to be all that much. Any thoughts appreciated!

thanks


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## Hoppy (Dec 24, 2005)

Dave-H said:


> I think I'm going to get two Current USA 12.25" Powerbrite LED Linking Module (10,000K Daylight) strips and put the in a V shape, so that they are just a few inches off of the back walls of the tank.This seems like a winner - it would sit flush on the glass, and light up the back of the tank nicely! Not that expensive, either.
> 
> But I don't know how to do the math. Does anyone have an opinion on whether 2 of these would help to light up the darkish rear of my 55 gallon corner tank? I'm not sure how to compare them to the 2 x 9 watt CF fixture that I'm also considering, but that's a retrofit PITA.
> 
> ...


I think it is very unlikely that those LED strips will provide enough light even for low light plants. Notice that no information about the wattage of the LEDs is given. That usually means they are very low wattage, considerably less than one watt apiece. And, even one watt LEDs would give far too little light. LEDs work well only if there are a lot of them, so every spot in the tank gets light from many LEDs, not just one or two.


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## Dave-H (Jul 29, 2010)

Each strip has 4 x 1 watt LEDs and Current USA claims that each emitter will produce about 50-60 lumens/watt. I can easily fit 2 (or 3 even) of these close to the back of the tank. 

I will still have my 2 x 18w T5NO which extends across the entire front of the tank and really lights it up well. The back is dimmmer, but there is still some light coming from the T5NO so the LED's just need to bring the far rear of the tank up to having enough light. If I put 2 of them in a V shape with the strips meeting at the far rear of the tank, that would at least concentrate the light from the LEDs in the right place. 

I saw one of these units going at the lfs and I was pretty surprised at how much visible/apparent light they product. The lfs guy thought that since they'd be essentially lighting up a small area (i.e. the back corner of the tank) that 2 of them would have a good chance of providing a solid low-light solution.

I'm tempted try this - even if I needed 3 strips (they are linkable so that's easy enough) it seems like an efficient way to light the rear of the tank and it would look pretty good.


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## Hoppy (Dec 24, 2005)

Let us know how well these work for you. There is a lot to learn about LED lights.


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## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

My gut says that the benefit from the LEDs is going to be negligable, but I'm quite curious so please do keep us posted!


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## Dave-H (Jul 29, 2010)

Update on this:

The Powerbrites are incredibly bright, I'm impressed. I might just keep one of them as two is actually a bit brighter than I want.As for the plants, they seem happy.

Unfortunately, I'm running hot now. My tank is averaging about 82 for 3 or 4 days now since it's been crazy hot in Denver.


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## forddna (Sep 12, 2007)

I have a 54g corner bowfront with matching canopy. I installed 3 PC's using AH Supply kits. I bought one 55w Bright Kit and one 2x36w Bright Kit.

It was enough to grow low light plants, but I never felt like the tank was bright enough. If you think about it, corner tanks are dimmer to begin with because they are only getting natural sunlight in from the front. 

I am going to try something different with this tank soon, either with T5s or a 70w MH. Or combo of both. I don't want a high light tank; just want more brightness than what I have now.


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## forddna (Sep 12, 2007)

Sorry, I didn't see your update before I posted.

How did you position the LED strips?


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## Dave-H (Jul 29, 2010)

forddna said:


> Sorry, I didn't see your update before I posted.
> 
> How did you position the LED strips?


I have them along the back row, in a V shape sometimes. And they also work well parallell to each other and the main light up front. Either way, it lights the tank nicely as far as appearance. 

As for growing, I can't really say because I'm new to this. I have a 36w Coralife double T5NO strip up front + the two Powerbrites and everything seems to be growing. There's no CO2 so I don't expect much explosive growth, but that's not what I'm going for. Every plant has new leaves/shoots/etc so I'm assuming the tank is pretty healthy. 

But WHERE DID YOU GET THAT CANOPY????? Is that a cover for the Aqueon (All-Glass) 54 gallon bowfront?? If so, I want one! I have been considering building one but it's kind of a pain.... Where did ya get it??


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## forddna (Sep 12, 2007)

Well, the tank itself is Aqueon, but IIRC, the stand and canopy are from another company and sold at a local LFS together. The company is in Florida. But I have no idea what their name is! It's a very nicely built setup, but the canopy has no cutouts in the back, so my husband had to cut out pieces for me for cords, plumbing, and airflow. We ended up recently cutting more out because I finally realized it was the lack of airflow causing bulbs to burn up, mildew inside the canopy, etc.

Here's more pics of the setup.


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## Dave-H (Jul 29, 2010)

forddna said:


> Well, the tank itself is Aqueon, but IIRC, the stand and canopy are from another company and sold at a local LFS together. The company is in Florida. But I have no idea what their name is! It's a very nicely built setup, but the canopy has no cutouts in the back, so my husband had to cut out pieces for me for cords, plumbing, and airflow. We ended up recently cutting more out because I finally realized it was the lack of airflow causing bulbs to burn up, mildew inside the canopy, etc.
> 
> Here's more pics of the setup.


I would love to get my hands on that, especially if it were disassembled and unstained. I want my canopy to only be about 9 inches high, and match perfectly the oak stain.

Is there any way that you could find out who makes it? Maybe they'll sell it to me in kit form. I've been looking everywhere!


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## forddna (Sep 12, 2007)

Here's the pic that I goofed up.










I will try to find out. I bought the setup at Nolan's in Lakeland, Florida. (in case I never get around to it, you can call them and ask..lol)


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