Need some lighting advice

I am in the process of cladding up the stand for my tank and I want to build a canopy for it as well but I cant start planning the canopy before I have a layout plan for the lights. So what tubes do you suggest and how many etc. I have a few T8 electronic ballasts so would like to stick with T8 and 58w tubes if possible.

The tank will not have any plants in as I am planning on stocking it with Africans (Tangs will be first prize) so all the fluorescents must do is light the tank and 'amplify' the colour of the fish. Tank dimensions are 2mx600x600.

 

@RGV: The T8 ballasts should be fine how many are you planning to use? Asking because too much light will give you algae problems in the long run.

 

That's part of the question I don't know how many to use. Would like to keep algae to a minimum because I really don't like that stuff. I was thinking of giving the fish some natural lighting to simulate daylight and moonlight with timers.

 

I'd advise 6500 Kelvin lights it gives a good crisp white daylight colour, although true daylight is less than this. Bulbs with a pink hue give good colours for fish. What are the diameter of your tubes?

 

@Swagasaurus -T8 tubes are 26mm diameter.

@RGV -I'll give you my opinion what I would do if I was you.
@Swagasaurus mentioned a bulb with pink hue. They indeed bring out the coulour of the fishes nicely. This would be a light in the 8000k range, I would recommend a Sylvania Grolux (8000k), I also used a GEC Aquaray (9200k). Both tubes come in the 58W version which is 1.5m long.
When you build your hood you could built a frame inside this hood. Looking at your tank from the front, fix 2 hinges (perhaps 3) at the back (inside). To these hinges mount approx. 6 cm wide "battons" (or strips of wood, approx. 15mm thick. These "battons" point towards the front and must be able to flip up vertically. Link the "battons" with another 6cm (wide) piece of wood across at the front (inside hood). If you want you can add another piece across at the back. You then have a frame which can be tilted upwards (90 degrees) to flip out of the way for tank maintenance.
On the underside of this frame you can now attach Terry clips (you get them at Builders Warehouse). Your tank is 60cm, mine is 50cm, I fitted 6 Terry clips for 6 tubes (evenly spaced). You are not planning a planted tank so you could use less, but still there is no harm in fitting the Terry clips. Now with the right clip (I think I used 28mm) you can "clip" your tubes in and that is it. The clips hold them into place. The longest T8 tube you will find is 1.5m (58W), so you might want to use the 3 "batton" method to offset the tubes for equal light distribution.
I mounted my balasts on the sidewalls of my hood and then some on top of the moveable 'frame'. Make a wiring loom at the end caps so you have 'room to play' when you move the tubes a bit to the left of right.
This arrangement will also allow for easy mods, I have a mixture of T8 and T5, you can change the terry clips easily enough but I found that this was not absolutely necessary as the T8 fits into the same clip as the T5.
Now you can fit a normal household switch (as used for lights) to your hood. I used a 6 switch unit (in single size). 2 timers each control a group of 3 lights but the on/off switches wired in after the timers allow me to reduce the lighting regardless of the timer. So you could use this method to control you lighting and algae. If I find that algae is spreading, I leave the timers the same, just switch 1 or 2 lights off in each group. If I want to look at the tank i can always just flip a switch and the lights come on.
I am fairly new on this site and never posted a pic (haven't bothered to figure out how that works, as I doubt I will suceed to upload much from home where my internet connection is very poor).
But I can use my bb to send emails and could send you a picture to perhaps make things a bit clearer if my ramblings didn't make sense

 

@Swagasaurus -T8 tubes are 26mm diameter.

@RGV -I'll give you my opinion what I would do if I was you.
@Swagasaurus mentioned a bulb with pink hue. They indeed bring out the coulour of the fishes nicely. This would be a light in the 8000k range, I would recommend a Sylvania Grolux (8000k), I also used a GEC Aquaray (9200k). Both tubes come in the 58W version which is 1.5m long.
When you build your hood you could built a frame inside this hood. Looking at your tank from the front, fix 2 hinges (perhaps 3) at the back (inside). To these hinges mount approx. 6 cm wide "battons" (or strips of wood, approx. 15mm thick. These "battons" point towards the front and must be able to flip up vertically. Link the "battons" with another 6cm (wide) piece of wood across at the front (inside hood). If you want you can add another piece across at the back. You then have a frame which can be tilted upwards (90 degrees) to flip out of the way for tank maintenance.
On the underside of this frame you can now attach Terry clips (you get them at Builders Warehouse). Your tank is 60cm, mine is 50cm, I fitted 6 Terry clips for 6 tubes (evenly spaced). You are not planning a planted tank so you could use less, but still there is no harm in fitting the Terry clips. Now with the right clip (I think I used 28mm) you can "clip" your tubes in and that is it. The clips hold them into place. The longest T8 tube you will find is 1.5m (58W), so you might want to use the 3 "batton" method to offset the tubes for equal light distribution.
I mounted my balasts on the sidewalls of my hood and then some on top of the moveable 'frame'. Make a wiring loom at the end caps so you have 'room to play' when you move the tubes a bit to the left of right.
This arrangement will also allow for easy mods, I have a mixture of T8 and T5, you can change the terry clips easily enough but I found that this was not absolutely necessary as the T8 fits into the same clip as the T5.
Now you can fit a normal household switch (as used for lights) to your hood. I used a 6 switch unit (in single size). 2 timers each control a group of 3 lights but the on/off switches wired in after the timers allow me to reduce the lighting regardless of the timer. So you could use this method to control you lighting and algae. If I find that algae is spreading, I leave the timers the same, just switch 1 or 2 lights off in each group. If I want to look at the tank i can always just flip a switch and the lights come on.
I am fairly new on this site and never posted a pic (haven't bothered to figure out how that works, as I doubt I will suceed to upload much from home where my internet connection is very poor).
But I can use my bb to send emails and could send you a picture to perhaps make things a bit clearer if my ramblings didn't make sense

 

Well that was exactly the advice I was looking fore and everything makes complete sense apart from the hinge part. Maybe a picture might help but how do you keep the non moving part of the hood not lifting together with the rest?

In the past I used Sylvania Grolux lamps and they kicked ass compared to the other setup where I used 1 marine blue and 1 white on a 4ft, it lit the tank nicely but the colours on the fish wasn't right. I can't find any grolux lamps so should I use Actintic tubes? Is a Grolux Actintic or is it 50/50? I will need to order 5ft lamps because I see they are also scarce off the shelf which I don't have an issue with I just need to know what to order.

Thanx for the info!

Sent from Tapatalk

 

Ok I went through your post again and I see hat you mean now by just the top frame lifting up and not the whole canopy haha If you want you can email me a pic at spikv@hotmail.com

 

@RGV -I will email you a pdf file giving info on bulb selection. I will also send you some pics of the 'hinged frame', you know what they say, a picture tells more than a thousand words.
In my initial post, I didn't really explain why I use 'the frame' at all rather than just mounting the lights straight to the inside of the canopy lid.
In my case there are 2 main reasons, one of them applicable to my specific case/needs only and not relevant in 99% of the cases.
The second reason is the flexibility this arrangement allows. Should I want to change the arrangement of the lights (quantity, type (T8/T5), spacing) I can do so with relative ease.
And should I, further down the line, contemplate a change to LED lighting all I would need to do is replace 'the frame' without any real need to modify the canopy.

 

@RGV -I will email you a pdf file giving info on bulb selection. I will also send you some pics of the 'hinged frame', you know what they say, a picture tells more than a thousand words.
In my initial post, I didn't really explain why I use 'the frame' at all rather than just mounting the lights straight to the inside of the canopy lid.
In my case there are 2 main reasons, one of them applicable to my specific case/needs only and not relevant in 99% of the cases.
The second reason is the flexibility this arrangement allows. Should I want to change the arrangement of the lights (quantity, type (T8/T5), spacing) I can do so with relative ease.
And should I, further down the line, contemplate a change to LED lighting all I would need to do is replace 'the frame' without any real need to modify the canopy.