What is the cheapest lighting that would grow plants?

[raglan]

in tanks up to 24 " tall ?
I have very little knowledge of bulbs and current lighting systems, and with 4 large tanks and severely limited funds, I don't know what kind and how much lighting and if it is possible on very low budget.
The only experience with planted tank for me was 4 regular fluorescent tubes over an 18 " tall tank. That worked OK.

any clues for better than a bunch of regular shoplights on top ?

thanks,
Dave

[StanChung]

Hi Dave, you can try to get those rated at around 6500K.
I'm not sure what you have over there, but over here we use compact fluorescent for more power per area. There's brands by Phillips, Osram and a few others. The ones to get are 36W.

They make it in long single tubes [T8] as well. We get standard sizes like 2 ft and 4ft here due to market demand.
Here's a link for the long ones. 6500K and 84 CRI. You can see more details when you search in 'find the bulb you need'
http://www.nam.lighting.philips.com/...lay.php?mode=4

These have nice colour rendition. Not too warm and not too cool.

[raglan]

Stan,
Thank you lots for a good clue on the 6500K. I find that going with T8 might cost me far in excess of my budget , if I get let's say, 12 or 16 tubes and the fixtures.
In the end I might have to go with regular T12 fluorescents and a couple of red LED cluster lights, I don't know for sure.
I might have to limit my planted tank desires to one 100 g tank instead of 4 x 100 gal.

Dave

[StanChung]

Hi Dave,

You're welcome, if cost is a problem, I'd suggest some DIY.

A 100G is about 4X2X2ft?
If your tank has a hood, you can fit comfortably 9X36W Power compact tubes for more power or 6X36/40W 4 ft T8/T12 FL tubes or 8X40W T5 for a bit more power.

DIY PL Lighting
DIY T8 Lighting

I personally would go for Metal Halide+T8 or PL lighting combo. ADA MH 'white' bulbs are IMO really nice and they last a long time. A couple of nice luminaires from Arcadia, Solite, Dymax, Geiseman and ADA would certainly make your tank more designer looking.

MH bulbs last IMO at least 50% longer than T'4,5,5,8,12' tubes. I would probably replace the MH bulb once 2-2.5 years? Mine's 1.5 years and going strong.

Cost wise, it may seem more expensive but replacing a whole set of designer tubes is more costly in the long run IMO.

Another plus point is with hanging lights, you have a lot a free space to work with unlike fluorescent tubes that lose a lot of power when hung due to their diffused quality. Maintenance becomes easier because I use to have to lift the light fixtures to do maintenance [so many of them for a 75G] More chances of getting a nasty shock!

Lastly, the ripple effect is really something. You won't get much of that with fluorescent tubes.


If going for MH route, that would be 2X150 + 4x36W. You'd be able to grow almost anything. Red plants, eriocaulons, star grass, toninas, all the light hungry plants.

[Shadow]

DIY PL Lighting
DIY T8 Lighting

bro it is the same link, both link are DIY PL light.

DIY PL light is about the same cost as buy new light set, well in Singapore at least .

[raglan]

and then this is so inexpensive. other units I saw were waaay more pricey. these aren't osram/silvania though. perhaps they are dollar store equivalents: much less light.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...D=260276695088

Because of finances I was almost counting on having to do a DIY hood that I could work around the problem you describe, Stan, of having the lights sitting on the tank. I hate that, where I can't access the tank easily all the time.

I would make some legs for the hood , supported by the tank stands which I already made, leaving such a space to sit a heavy hood on. Then I could rig up something to lift up the lighting unit within the hood when I work on the tank.

[StanChung]

Oops, fixed link.

Hi Dave,

DIY's the way to go then. If you can DIY MH lighting all the better.

[raglan]

Thank You Stan.
I am a little afraid of MH as I am accident prone so far have only killed plants and aquatic animals, and do not wish to extend my list of species.
Also I don't want ballast hum as from older style big 220/240 V ballast box.
I imagined water and a ballast box or water and hot bulb, hot bulb plus water, etc...
Remembering when I dropped one end of a fluorescent fixture into a tank

But now I see that things look different, they have some smaller self ballast bulbs; fairly inexpensive, regular 110V power.

Is this corect or am I missing something ?

thinking of making the hood extend almost to the ceiling in height so that the tank is looking like it's set inside a square column wihtin the room. that woud give me lots of safety room for a glass partition that I can reach in and open, and some height that I can raise the lamp away from the tank, so I can work on the tank, and lots of air cooling within. Possibly an additional chimney effect can be made using the height.
Still, this means total of hundreds of watts of MH in my living roo, for 4 100 g tanks. It's gonna get hot in summertime.

I'll stop bothering you now and wrestle with this for a while !

Thanks,
Dave

[StanChung]

Hi Dave,

If you're going for MH, I suggest open top as it need the distance to cover the area.

As for the other options, it's probably a good idea to get the LFS/carpenter/electrician to help you. Pay a little for them to fix it up. IME regular hoods don't provide enough light for plants.

What's the voltage in Canada like? specialty Japanese goods[ADA] are generally in 100/110V for their lighting. Over here we use 220-240V.

[Shadow]

probably like US 110V

[raglan]

Yup, we have 110/120 V here.

[illumnae]

i believe DIY is alot cheaper in the west than it is here in Singapore. From my browsings on US planted tank forums, it seems that DIY PLs (they call them CF over there i think) are very popular, as are DIY t5ho retrofits.

what plants are you intending to keep Dave, or is it just for your viewing pleasure? If you aren't going to inject co2 and keep demanding plants, you could get by with 4x54w t5ho or even less (my low tech 4x2x2 tank is running on 2x55W + 2x 36W PL) if it's for an amazon biotope setup.

imo, MH is only preferable/essential for high-tech planted tank hobbyists and from my understanding by reading your posts on this forum and another, you're more about the fish than the plants

[Aquaria One]

or you can wait for my shop to get stock and I can give you a discount.

[raglan]

thanks Aquaria One !
Perhaps my doc has something to stop the dithering and then I could buy hardware

thanks Stan and Shadow and Illumnae.
Correct that there can be no competition for parameter choices, between the fish and the plants.
No ferts, no CO2 and a temp of 80 degrees and 100 ppm TDS , low pH
I already have starters growing for riccia, crypt wendti java fern, foxtail, and some small vals in a small tank with two 9 watt CF and a small gro tube. For this In the strter tank I have DIY CO2. Jungle vals are waiting in a tank in the sunlight with no care but they aren't dieing.
Nothing much happening The riccia is doing well ( it was until I pulled the mat apart to spread it out ), so are the crypts and others, java fern is static.
I can't get the hang of artificially dosing everything appropriately, I need a good level of fish stock and good lighting to take over the job.

The riccia is doing well, usually ( until I pulled the mat apart to spread it out more), and the crypts are doing quite well but I can't get enough growth to start other tanks.

the good part is that I can't even grow algae, apparently