Lighting penetration

though he was gonna use cheap ones... I agree with you EJ get the best first time around....
 
EJ speak to Dr. Death he sells 4" T5 lamps for R120 bucks if i remember correctly and not its not the %!#@ ones.
 
Do those lights come with white spots CB????

I'll give him a call tomorrow, maybe i'll pick them up if i make it to GP this week.
 
I think they do but you have to pay extra!! I'm slowly getting my sense of humour back..Imagine not having a tank to look at...
 
CB say it aint so ???
 
Guys, don't stress, he still has his tank.

He is just spending the weekdays away from home on business.
 
Is the Concrete tank in its own "cavity" or room? If so suck the heat out into the roof with a few ceiling fans and go for Hill`s option of mh now, and mount them on a bracket on the wall. The T5`s generate some heat as well so the fans might come in useful there too.
 
Dober Man said:
i will need too many MH's. The tank surface will measure 1500 x 2500. Hence the T5's, as i was going to run them across the width of the tank.

The halides i fear will cost a lot more in terms of electricity, and will generate a span of heat.
Click to expand...

Some thoughts on the above...

If it's possible to mount the MH units slightly higher than normal (e.g. if the tank was an "in-wall" enclosed to the ceiling...) you should be able to illuminate it very well with just 3 x 400W MH lamps, mounted along the "narrow" side of the tank and tilted slightly towards the wider dimension (my tank is 1.8m long x 0.7m wide), and my three x 400W MH's more than covers the area, mounted straight down, only about 250mm above the water...) To improve coverage, you should also use "floodlight" reflecters/housing, instead of "spotlight" reflectors/housings. This way, you could have a "bright" area towards the front half of the tank, with the light becoming gradually dimmer towards the rear - IMHO this would add even more "depth perspective" to the tank, and should look very nice. If really needed, you could supplement one or two "spots" with 150W MH spotlamps or T5's for effect...

Regarding heat: one Watt of heat = one Watt of heat, regardless of the type of lamp. Using 20x54W T5's you will generate 1080W of heat and light (and the light still heats the water, so one can just work on 1080W of heat...). Using 3x400W MH's you will generate 1200W of heat - that's only 120W more than the T5's, and will result in a substantial saving both short-and long term... Regardless of the type of lamp, if you're adding more than one kiloWatt of heat into the tank, you should seriously consider buying a chiller in any case, and with an appropriate sized chiller the additional heat of the MH's won't even be felt...

Hennie
 
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