# How best to light a 2ft deep aquarium



## plantbrain (Dec 15, 2003)

I'll tell you from direct experience, consider less, no more light.
Eg, 4x 24 W Tek light is more than you will ever need.

You would likely be better off using 2x 24 most of the time and then 4x 24 for perhaps 2-4 hours.

You'll get much better even lighting and there's no plant, I mean no plant, that you cannot grow anywhere in the tank.

Light really does not drop off much 2ft and up.
Few have tanks deep than 2ft also.


Regards, 
Tom Barr


----------



## plantbrain (Dec 15, 2003)

BTW, I have some Coralife aqua light pro's, 150 W HQI and 2x 65 W PC lights, used about 1.5 years for sale

250$ each(I have 2).
Includes shipping.

Regards,
Tom Barr


----------



## SamH (Jul 17, 2009)

So no Metal Halides needed then? Second opinion would be nice


----------



## oldpunk78 (Nov 1, 2008)

yesterday, i was going to recommend a 4x24w t5ho. i thought i'd wait and see what someone else thought would work out first though. 

the guy that did the 1st reply is probably one of the most knowledgeable out there...


----------



## SamH (Jul 17, 2009)

Actually, I might be able to get some lower wattage MH's. Something along the lines of 70w-150w.

That sound better?


----------



## WarDaddy (Sep 27, 2009)

I am just getting a 24x24x20 cube running. I am running it with 2x24w T5 and 1x175w MH. 

The cube was just planted, so I am running just the t-5 and slowly increasing the photo period. Then I will bring the MH midday for an hour and work it up to 5 hours. Withe the Final photoperiod looking like this:

t5 1 hour
MH 5 hours
t-5 2 hours

I can not control that the MH is about 4 watts per gallon, but I can control how many hours it is running. If I run into algae issues I can back it down. I had a reef tank and rather than spend a lot on entire light setups I opted to just change bulbs and play with the photo periods. We shall see hoe it works


----------



## Hoppy (Dec 24, 2005)

You can use as powerful a light as you want, but you will have to raise high power lights higher above the tank, getting more spillover light, in order to avoid big headaches with algae. You definitely can have "too much light" to allow you to enjoy your aquarium.


----------



## WarDaddy (Sep 27, 2009)

How high is high enough??? My light bulb is about 16" above the water, It was on for a while yesterday, it is bright  I do hope that will be good, otherwise I am going to have to make some changes, and that is never fun or easy


----------



## SamH (Jul 17, 2009)

I think I'll go with the lower wattage MH and maybe a couple of T8 to supplement it too.

Hoppy- I was looking at your 65G Riparium Journal and wondering, does that siphon overflow pipe work and how well? Need to do something similar for this tank, does the T joint need to be inline with the water level?

Thanks


----------



## badmatt (Nov 19, 2003)

plantbrain said:


> BTW, I have some Coralife aqua light pro's, 150 W HQI and 2x 65 W PC lights, used about 1.5 years for sale
> 
> 250$ each(I have 2).
> Includes shipping.
> ...


good price for an excellent unit i have this unit on my 30 gallon reef and its awesome! Id go for metal halide on a cube... but that's me


----------

