Lighting Depth

[Devil_Boy]

Hey There,

my first post, although ive been reading for quite some time now.

Just a quick question im finally stting my tank again and i think im going with the good ol' Whites TreeFrogs, i had one before in this tank but it was short lived when i couldnt take the tank with me where i had to move. So my dad has to look after the tank and the frog...well... the rest writes itself. The tank is about 300gal (48Wx30Wx36H) so its quite big, although its not a rectangle it has angles in it, its a custom built tank that im quite proud of, although i was going to sell it cause its just to big to go anywhere haha, and it barley fits through a door, usually the doors have to come off..

Anyways my question is the tank is 36" deep minus false bottom, substrate and such, so lets say about 30" now im already having a heating issue my 3 bulbs of 50watts wont heat far enough down...but i will be replacing with the 150watts heat/basking bulbs. so that should easily heat the tank up pretty much to the floor... now this will be my first planted tank so im going to through a flourecent fixture also on the tank im scared how far the the flourecent bulbs will 'light' will it reach 30", now obviously higher light plants i could be put a bit higher and mosses and such on the bottom what do you guys recommend. I dont have a fixture at the moment cause i cant find my old fixture. so i am open to all suggestions but i also dont want to spend 200$ on a fixture.

i searched the forum and i cant find anyone with this high of a tank. and i see why.. heh

anyways thanks in advance

[Rainfrog]

Do you have a large water feature? If so I would get a good submersible heater. this would help with heat and humidity. Keep in mind that large heat lights will dry the tank out a lot. you might want to look into other ways to heat it in case this become a problem. Big tank, Post some pics if you can

[Green Ghost]

Sounds like a really big tank, but you don't mention how long it is -

"The tank is about 300gal (48Wx30Wx36H) so its quite big"

48inches long? Which would be 4ft. That's important because it'll determine what kind of fixture will go in there. Fluorescent standard sizes include 4ft so it's possible for you to get one that will match your tank dimensions.

I was trying to find where I had originally read about it but just offhand the rule of thumb is half the length of the bulb. That works because the longer the bulb the higher the actual lumens. (in other words a 3ft 40 watt will provide less light than a 4ft 40 watt)

If you want more light penetration, then have more bulbs on the fixture. I think the standard for fluorescent is twin bulbs. If you look around you might be able to find fixtures that incorporate quad bulbs. I'd recommend that for the tank you're describing. (don't forget you'll be installing the light some distance above the top of the tank - so it's more than 30in.)

As I've recently found out the best light for aquatic plants is Metal Halide. It's a completely different animal than the fluorescent type. Metal halide provides more light in the blue spectrum. This is essential for aquatic plants especially at midday.

So the best fixture is one that uses a combination of fluorescent and metal halide. Basically using the two together but having them come on for different periods and different lengths of time. Fluorescent is the base light and the metal halide comes on strategically for short periods of time.

The common size fluorescent bulbs we see are the T12 bulbs and they are bigger than the smaller sized bulbs - the T8's - usually sold in petshops.

I have quad T8's and metal halide now and it's made all the difference for me.

I can pretty much grow anything.

Since you asked - I wouldn't recommend using incandescent light to heat the tank at all, for lots of different reasons. If you want to heat your tank up, use a heater designed for that purpose.