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Retirement and forum shutdown (17 Jan 2022)

Hi,

John Howell who has managed the forum for years is getting on and wishes to retire from the role of managing it.
Over the years, he has managed the forum through good days and bad days and he has always been fair.
He has managed to bring his passion for fish keeping to the forum and keep it going for so long.

I wish to thank John for his hard work in keeping the forum going.

With John wishing to "retire" from the role of managing the forum and the forum receiving very little traffic, I think we must agree that forum has come to a natural conclusion and it's time to put it to rest.

I am proposing that the forum be made read-only from March 2022 onwards and that no new users or content be created. The website is still registered for several more years, so the content will still be accessible but no new topics or replies will be allowed.

If there is interest from the ITFS or other fish keeping clubs, we may redirect traffic to them or to a Facebook group but will not actively manage it.

I'd like to thank everyone over the years who helped with forum, posted a reply, started a new topic, ask a question and helped a newbie in fish keeping. And thank you to the sponsors who helped us along the away. Hopefully it made the hobby stronger.

I'd especially like to thank John Howell and Valerie Rousseau for all of their contributions, without them the forum would have never been has successful.

Thank you
Darragh Sherwin

Lighting a 462 Ltr tank

  • Red Empress (Red Empress)
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09 Jul 2007 11:45 #1 by Red Empress (Red Empress)
Lighting a 462 Ltr tank was created by Red Empress (Red Empress)
This new tank I got only has one bulb & one lighting unit with it.

The bulb that is in there is an Arcadia marine white and is a 60" bulb & is mounted towards the back of the tank.

I don't know how old the bulb is so I am going to change is this week.

Is there better ones in this length that I could get that would brighten up the tank a bit & for a tank this size do I need more lighting than this say another one mounted at the front ?

It just seems a little dark towards the bottom.

Tank dimensions are Length 72" (183cm) x Width 18" ( 46 cm) x height 24" (61 cm)

Thanks guys.
Jill

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09 Jul 2007 13:27 #2 by apistodiscus (apistodiscus)
Replied by apistodiscus (apistodiscus) on topic Re: Lighting a 462 Ltr tank
Are you intending to grow plants in it? HQI lamps (metal halides) are recommended for tanks of over 60cm in height if you are intending to do so. T8's and reflectors should do the trick as well. A bit of trial and error. I'd chance the T8's since the are a hell lot cheaper to buy and to run.
If you are intending to keep no plants or just javafern or anubias ordinary 58W flourescents (I'd go for 3) will do the job

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09 Jul 2007 13:36 #3 by Red Empress (Red Empress)
Replied by Red Empress (Red Empress) on topic Re: Lighting a 462 Ltr tank
Thanks a lot Holger.

Will go down the BIG lfs tomorrow and see what they have.

I think a tank looks rather barren with out a bit of green in it. :D

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09 Jul 2007 13:55 #4 by Daragh_Owens (Daragh Owens)
The Rio 450 is about 24" deep and has 4 tubes so three would be a minimum I reckon.

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09 Jul 2007 14:47 #5 by KenS (Ken Simpson)
I'd agree, but you'd want to go for plants that thrive in low light. Even four of those tubes is not enough light for growing most plants in that size tank.

Regards,

Ken.

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09 Jul 2007 16:07 #6 by zig (zig)
I would say 3 x 58W T8s would do it for a low light setup

The tank is approx 123 (US) gallons, so.......

3x58W=174 Watts in total, divided by 123 (the size of the tank) = 1.41WPG (Watts Per Gallon) this will do fine for most low light setups.

The WPG guideline is different for very large tanks (above 90 gallons or so) so 1.4WPG would be quite a decent light level.

Daragh does the Rio 450 have 4x58Watt tubes as standard?

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09 Jul 2007 16:11 #7 by Red Empress (Red Empress)
Replied by Red Empress (Red Empress) on topic Re: Lighting a 462 Ltr tank
Thanks so much for all the input guys.

I have never dealt with a tank this size before so all feed back is most welcome. 8)

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09 Jul 2007 17:23 #8 by KenS (Ken Simpson)
The Rio 400 and Vision 450 are both 1.5m tanks so the largest T8 tube that will fit is a 36w. They both have 2x36w standard with an option for 4x36w (I think). There isn't a T5 Juwel option as far as I know.

The only tank I've seen with T5 standard was a Fluval tank in Blanchardstown over the weekend.

My new Aquatlantis tank is 150x50x70 and has 4x36w standard. I'm not too worried about the light as it will be a Malawi tank so won't have plants.

Regards,

Ken.

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09 Jul 2007 17:27 #9 by Red Empress (Red Empress)
Replied by Red Empress (Red Empress) on topic Re: Lighting a 462 Ltr tank

I'm not too worried about the light as it will be a Malawi tank so won't have plants.


You can still put plants in a malawi tank Ken. You just got to know which ones. :D

Thank you for the above info too. Most helpful.

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