Lighting???

Iam just wundering about this, why do we all use aquarium light's???
I suppose mainly because it looks great at night...
but do they need to be on?? Algae grows like mad with lots of light and if you wanted to feed your plec's on algae then you would leave them on all the time,
but if you are feeding a veggie diet then you dont need algae??

So what are the Benifits from lighting???????

Curby wrote:

Iam just wundering about this, why do we all use aquarium light's???
I suppose mainly because it looks great at night...
but do they need to be on?? Algae grows like mad with lots of light and if you wanted to feed your plec's on algae then you would leave them on all the time,
but if you are feeding a veggie diet then you dont need algae??

So what are the Benifits from lighting???????

i know a lot of people that dont use a light..... i have to because i have plants in most of my tanks..... i think it is more to do with the fact of being able to see the fish

but you could leave the tanks without lights

I have a question now, it just popped into my mind now What about a uv light. I know they are expensive, but we went to the aquarium and they had them, they have no algae because of that light. So if we are feeding a veggie diet, and we want out tanks to be lit nicely, wouldn't a uv light be ideal?

uv light is for gettin rid and detering stuff like whites spot etc


Dane

I just have standard juwel lights on my zeb tank in the house I use a double 8ft flourecent highglow day light in the fish house, but all the planted tanks are on the top rows of racking

UV light if high enough wattage will kill the whitespot spores in the water but to keep algae spores at bay you needn't have such high wattage.
There is now on the market, fairly inexpensive internal uv filters and I am running one in one of my non algae eating pleco tanks as the tank gets a bit of sunlight near the window at times and algae could become a problem.

I usually only run lights for the planted tanks or if I am feeding or otherwise attending tanks.
With electricity costs going up, I am opting lately for artificial plants for color and pleco cover. Then I don't need to run lights as much.

uv lights are good for white spot but also keep the algae down that grows

just replaced the light unit on my Juwel vision 180 tank , i must admit I'm not very impressed as the original unit was only 2 years old. I decided to keep the centre bar ( which holds the lid flaps) but remove the bulbs and brackets and replace them with a ballast unit ( interpet), the unit is a single, running a 30inch 25 watt bulb. At first i wondered if a single unit would suffice but after the modification I'm well pleased with the result, there is enough light for my Geophagus but not too much to worry my bristlenose and L,s. in fact the subdued lighting has encouraged them out more looking for a feed.

There's a video that may be of some use for you on Aquarium-Lighting at http://www.saltwaterhub.com/Aquarium-Lighting.shtml I've been finding the site useful.

cheers bablu for the usefull link..

KenG wrote:

just replaced the light unit on my Juwel vision 180 tank , i must admit I'm not very impressed as the original unit was only 2 years old. I decided to keep the centre bar ( which holds the lid flaps) but remove the bulbs and brackets and replace them with a ballast unit ( interpet), the unit is a single, running a 30inch 25 watt bulb. At first i wondered if a single unit would suffice but after the modification I'm well pleased with the result, there is enough light for my Geophagus but not too much to worry my bristlenose and L,s. in fact the subdued lighting has encouraged them out more looking for a feed.

Missed this post originally

We have the same problem on our Juwel Delta 300, the lighting bar units are way over the top in price and not that good in efficiency. I did find an American forum quite some time ago that suggested that you do what you have done, and found it much more reliable.

We now have a moonlight bar at the back of the tank, and are soon to use LED's for the front bar. This way we save money not only on replacement, but also means that the lecky bill takes a drop Fingers crossed that we have enough LED's lol

Modifying the light bar was a lot easier than i thought, first i removed the original bulb holders by applying force to them and they simply snapped out of thier holes, i then held the brackets in a vice and removed the biggest part of them until i was left with basically a blanking plate to fit back into the holes. Whilst the holders were off i drilled the holes to fit the new holders supplied with the Interpet ballast unit,fortunately the holes needed to be drilled very close to the holes for the original holders, to allow for the length of bulb, and i could (with a bit of Houdini type twisting!) push the fixings onto the rear of the new holders so the bulb would be held securely. Once the new holders were fitted i snapped the original "blanking" plates back into place,and this gives gives a very neat appearance.I have been running this set up for a while now and have no problem whatsoever, in fact using a ballast unit gives me a greater choice of tubes to choose from and a lot cheaper than Juwel tubes, also if in the future i decide to go to T5's it would be no problem to convert.

:roll: good posting ^^^^^^^^

I agree Curby, a great posting indeed. These are the types of posts that should be made more prominent for people to see when they are having problems with either Juwel lighting, or lighting bars in general.

Thanks for sharing KenG

You're very welcome, hope it helps, too many people are led to believe once the unit is worn out that the only alternative is a new one, I know i nearly fell for it until i saw the £65 price tag!.
I've recently seen the light bar on a Fluval Roma tank and they look exactly like the Juwels, so it looks like the mod could be done on them as well.

guys just incase you want cheap reflectors for your lighting,

try that shiny silver reflector stuff plumbers use behind
the radiators to hold heat.

it works a treat, can be folded and stuck on the tank lid easily, reflects super well, and keep heat loads better than those white reflectors that come with the tank....

took me about 30 minutes to fit mine to a rekord 80-and i am sure the colours of the fish can be picked out more clearly now

can be bought relatively cheaper at most diy chains

I know exactly what you are talking about! THANKS!!!!