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Post by insayne on Jul 9, 2018 20:31:34 GMT -5
I have a 100 gal cichlid tank. I see that its generally accepted that Giesemann is the top of the food chain for quality lighting. My tank uses a 4ft 2 lamp t-5 setup. we got the tank and all equipment used so i have no idea how old the zoo med bulbs in it are. Unfortunately Giesemann recomends one powerchrome super flora and one powerchrome tropic lamp for my unit and it appears the 54W super floras are sold out everywhere. Ive even seen what appears to be a blowout on their bulbs at a distributor with the whole powerchrome line being 50% off currently. Are they being discontinued? are there comparable high quality replacements?
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Post by mmfed01 on Jul 9, 2018 23:51:36 GMT -5
I wish I could be more help, but I've retired all my T5 fixtures. I've used Giesemann, but also had great results with Zoo Med, Solarmax T5 and Aqua Medic To name a few. My biggest T5 fixture was a custom built 8 bulb unit that had 4 different switches so I could stagger different bulbs throughout the day and intensities. Will you be growing plants? I've successfully grown beautiful plants and lush algae with all the brands I listed earlier. Others may have a different opinion but this is my personal experience. May I ask what brand is your fixture?
Mike
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Post by Carl on Jul 10, 2018 9:19:21 GMT -5
Have you looked into high performance/efficiency LED lights? While no arguing that Giesemann are among the best, especially when it comes to T5 lighting, but the efficiency and ability to fine tune PUR of the best LEDs are hard to beat, in particular the AAP AquaRay line Further Reading: www.americanaquariumproducts.com/Aquarium_Lighting.htmlCarl |
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Post by insayne on Jul 10, 2018 10:38:07 GMT -5
I wish I could be more help, but I've retired all my T5 fixtures. I've used Giesemann, but also had great results with Zoo Med, Solarmax T5 and Aqua Medic To name a few. My biggest T5 fixture was a custom built 8 bulb unit that had 4 different switches so I could stagger different bulbs throughout the day and intensities. Will you be growing plants? I've successfully grown beautiful plants and lush algae with all the brands I listed earlier. Others may have a different opinion but this is my personal experience. May I ask what brand is your fixture? Mike Well my oscar doesn't like plants all to well. Ive had a few bunches of java fern and a couple little anubias and they get destroyed. Also our substrate is medium gravel so im not sure how many species of plants would do well in this tank. I'm not opposed to plants but have failed miserably with them thus far. Edit: the fixture is a zoo med unit. came with the tank when we got it all used and is a little worse for wear currently. |
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Post by insayne on Jul 10, 2018 10:39:59 GMT -5
Have you looked into high performance/efficiency LED lights? While no arguing that Giesemann are among the best, especially when it comes to T5 lighting, but the efficiency and ability to fine tune PUR of the best LEDs are hard to beat, in particular the AAP AquaRay line Further Reading: www.americanaquariumproducts.com/Aquarium_Lighting.htmlCarl Carl your information is the best but i havent had the time i need to really give your lighting article a good thorough read. I would love to go LED my reservation is startup cost and lack of knowledge on a fixture or fixtures that would be ideal on my 6ft long tank. |
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Post by devonjohnsgard on Jul 10, 2018 12:25:10 GMT -5
If your not growing plants, I wouldn't worry about getting the best lighting. I would think just any decent T5s would do.
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Post by insayne on Jul 10, 2018 19:28:16 GMT -5
still haven't had enough time to real the article fully. Looks like for my setip it should only be 200-300 for a full LED conversion. Not as bad as i thought.
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Post by mmfed01 on Jul 10, 2018 19:55:19 GMT -5
I have 2 GroBeam 1500 Tiles on my 120 gallon. They are incredible lights. Built like tanks. I think my aquarium is shown on AAP's website in the LED lighting section. I however, need the heavy light due to the plants growing...
Either way, you can't go wrong with TMC's...
Mike
P.S. Regarding cost, you definitely win with investing in a quality LED light. Electricity savings (depending on what you buy) and not having to replace bulbs every year or so is a plus also.
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Post by insayne on Jul 10, 2018 21:58:21 GMT -5
i think i could get by with 2-3 of the aqua grow 600 12 watt units. I really need to read through that article and then come up with all the questions i have after so i can consult everyone. My concern with the 600 units is the width of light output. the tank is 72x18x18 and the lights only have an 11 x 24 spread. three of them takes care of the length of the tank but the width is a little lacking. then i need to consider controllers and so on. Again i gotta read the article and see if I can retain PAR and PUR info.
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Post by mmfed01 on Jul 10, 2018 22:22:02 GMT -5
 This is 2 GroBeam 600's end to end on my 65 Gallon tank. I'm happy with spread from front to back... Mike |
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Post by insayne on Jul 10, 2018 23:33:04 GMT -5
that looks excellent. How high up are they? how wide is your 65? 18" as well? Are you running a controller?
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Post by mmfed01 on Jul 10, 2018 23:40:31 GMT -5
My tank is 36.5x25x18.5......sooo the lights sit right on the glass tops, so right above the water line. I don't use a controller yet. I run my lights at full power. Eventually I'd like TMC controllers on all tanks. Right now I have all aquarium lights hooked up to smart outlets, that I can control from my phone anywhere. I'm doing the same with water sensor alarms as I re do my 120 gallon and 60 gallon. I need to make technology work for ME...  Mike |
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Post by insayne on Jul 11, 2018 0:12:35 GMT -5
nice! we live in a rental so smart outlets are kind of a waste. My T5 setup is just on a plug in timer. You mentioned water sensor alarms? what are they monitoring?
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Post by mmfed01 on Jul 11, 2018 0:17:34 GMT -5
I love the outlets, they come in very handy. I rent also, so aquarium leaks are a big fear. I have water sensor alarms in my filter trays to detect water. I get a message from Alexa if such happens....
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Post by mmfed01 on Jul 11, 2018 0:25:33 GMT -5
My bad, when I say smart outlet I mean the wifi plugs that you can connect to the internet and control just about anything...
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Post by insayne on Jul 11, 2018 0:35:50 GMT -5
wifi plugs? so not actual smart/wifi enabled GFI'S? i was looking at the controller. Seems really cool to be able to have ramp up and down as well as moonlight and storm settings too. I'm going to have to go LED. It's just so cool.
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Post by mmfed01 on Jul 11, 2018 0:40:31 GMT -5
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Post by mmfed01 on Jul 11, 2018 0:47:07 GMT -5
Yep, just like the link I sent. Everything is hooked up to one. I can even turn off my filters. The TMC Smart Controllers are very nice. Gotta save my pocket change for those. I too like the storm settings. My 120 will run off a Tunze 7000 Tank controller....and I'll control the lights from a TMC controller. Carl has great writings on lighting and Devon has videos discussing lighting. LED is the way things are going. Even though Electricity is included in my rent, I was using a LOT of electricity running T5's and MH fixtures. What filtration are you running? If I remember correctly you have Oscars? I had them years ago...beautiful fish....but aggressive and messy Mike |
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Post by insayne on Jul 11, 2018 1:10:52 GMT -5
Those WiFi plugs are cool. Currently I’m using two power strips to run everything. I’ve looked through some of the article (I keep getting distracted) and I watched a video Devon put together covering most of the lighting points. LED is where it’s at. I’m running a FX5. I think I lucked out when we got our setup. $120 bucks for the tank, fx5, light, spare pump motor, stand, some natural rock and a few tank decorations. We then elected to refinish the stand (didn’t turn out at all how I wanted but my GF likes it) i did a ton of research and resealed the tank and painted the rims.
We have a cichlid tank. I bought an Oscar not knowing what I was getting into. Research on the Oscar necessitated the 100 gallon tank. Then listening to local “experts” lead to many ups and downs with the tank. We currently have 2 Oscars (one being rehomed tomorrow more on this later), a electric blue jack Dempsey, a fire mouth, a blood parrot, a green terror, a ruby jewel cichlid, a fire eel and 3 tinfoil bars(were a distraction for bullying will be rehomed at a later date).
So about the second oscar. My girlfriend sent me picture of a “cute” Oscar when she was away for training. I told her not to bring it home because there’s a chance it becomes a mated pair with our big Oscar (scuba Steve) and she showed up with it anyway. Long story short I got up yesterday morning for a work trip to two Oscars hovering over fresh eggs on the rocks I cleaned the day before. Obviously they both were extremely aggressive. We have the younger Oscar separated now and awaiting transfer to her new home. Luckily there were no casualties thus far. For the months we’ve had this second Oscar my girlfriends coworkers (she manages a pet store) continues to tell her that the shape of the Oscars lower fins were a way to tell their sex. I continually told her that’s not at all how it works but... I was right! Anyway I guess on one hand it’s a bit of a compliment because the water conditions are good enough for them to breed after struggling with Hole in the head Disease (caught it early and how I ended up an AAP customer and on this forum) caused by high nitrates and overall poor water, but on the other hand all the other cichlids were put in danger. Sorry for the long post btw.
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Post by mmfed01 on Jul 11, 2018 1:19:23 GMT -5
That's a great story! I'm always happy to hear happy fish stories.
I had to retire the FX5 I had on my 65 gallon. The pump kept crapping out and I finally got ticked off. I suppose I will fix it sometime but given limited space in the apartment...it can wait until I buy and have a basement AND MORE ROOM.
I've got a mix of Eheims and AAP Sun Suns and Fluval G6's (don't ever buy...I just use them for the ease of cartridge changing for chemical media lol) and Tunze Comline internal filters on my various tanks.
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