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cichlid lighting help

2K views 16 replies 8 participants last post by  DanniGirl 
#1 ·
hey everyone im wondering whts good lighting for my 90g tank this is wht i was thinkin.. wht do you guys think.

coralife 10000k with marine glo actinic
or
power glo with marine glo actinic
or
you tell me

i have a fixture from homedepot and both lights turn on at the same time

thanks
 
#3 ·
What kind of fish are you keeping? Any plants?
And why an Actinic bulb? Yeah, I'd also ditch the actinic and go with a 6700K and 10kK, since it appears you have a dual fixture and those two bulbs create a pleasing illumination, imo. But as Anthraxx said, you could buy a few and give them a shot, as people have different opinions on color, and you can tailor to highlight colors of the fish you intend on having/or have.
 
#5 ·
10000k plus power glow.....6500k plus power glo......10000k plus actinic......6500k plus actinic is what I prefer. 6500k or 10000k with no actinic makes for too much yellow light for my taste.

I currently have 1-10000k, 1-6500k and two actinics in my quad fixture.....lighting is perfect. If I turn off the actinics and just use the 10000k and 6500k it is just too yellow and the colors on the fish just don't look as good. Again...much of this is personal taste.
 
#8 ·
newcichlidz said:
what would make my tank look bright and also make the fish look good

should i just go 10000k and actinic

or powerglo (18000k) and actinic ??

or 50/50 ( 2 of them)

my fixture only tanks 2 lights and they turn on at the same time
Don't go with power glo and actinic only....tank will look almost all blue and dark...terrible. I would go with either two 50/50's, one power glo plus 10000k/6500k or actinic plus 10000k/6500k.
 
#9 ·
What type of fish are you keeping? Do you want to illuminate the blues or the yellows?

I would probably go with 50/50's or 10000k and actinic. The 50/50's do a good job illuminating everything whereas the 10000k and actinics will give the tank a more of a deep water look with cooler colors.
Best thing, try them out and see what you like. :thumb:
 
#10 ·
DanniGirl said:
What type of fish are you keeping? Do you want to illuminate the blues or the yellows?

I would probably go with 50/50's or 10000k and actinic. The 50/50's do a good job illuminating everything whereas the 10000k and actinics will give the tank a more of a deep water look with cooler colors.
Best thing, try them out and see what you like. :thumb:
Sorry, I have to ask a question within this thread since it was mentioned. I myself am almost set to purchase bulbs. With what DanniGirl just mentioned, would I have to make a choice on blues or yellows?
I plan on having both blues (peacock/ hap/ possibly others), and yellows (yellow labs), and of course other colors. So would I have to pick out one that was highlighted more? As for an actinic light, I have seen a recent thread on here, someoen posted some pics without actinic and then same fish with actinic and the difference was amazing.
Even though I quoted DanniGirl, I don't mind anybody responding. Sorry If I'm hijacking your thread, but seen it posted, figured this would be a great place for an explanation.
 
#11 ·
Hi Jayse,

You wouldn't have to choose between blues or yellows, it's more along the lines of what colors you would like to accentuate.

Rhinox gave a great explanation a few weeks back:

Rhinox said:
What we see as color is actually reflected light of certain wavelengths. Something that is yellow reflects yellow light, and absorbs all other wavelengths. Something that is blue reflects blue light, and absorbs all other wavelengths. Black absorbs all wavelengths of light, and white reflects all wavelengths of light.

So a yellow lab is bright yellow and reflects yellow wavelengths in light. A demasoni is blue and reflects blue wavelengths. So my first thought was to match light spectrum to your fish species. For yellow labs, warmer spectrums contain more light in the yellow spectrum, which means the labs should reflect more of the light and look brighter. For demasoni, cooler lighting and blue actinics contain blue wavelengths that the blue fish reflects making them look brighter.

But that can't be the whole story, or else yellow fish would not look good at all under cool lighting and blue actinic, as there is not much light of yellow wavelengths to reflect. I think the other half might be choosing a light spectrum that the fish can stand out in. For example, if you use nothing but blue lighting, it may make a cool effect, but everything looks blue, so even blue fish that can reflect that wavelength can't stand out.

My current thinking is that you want your light to contain wavelengths in its spectrum equal to the color of the fish, so the fish will reflect those colors and look very bright, but you want the average color of the light to be different from the color of the fish so that the fish will stand out.
...

So extrapolating back, I think thats why full spectrum lighting often looks good for a variety of fish. Full spectrum lighting containing all wavelengths means any fish color will have some of "their" wavelengths of light to reflect, and will stand out against the overall average light color. I think mixing bulbs of different colors together mimics that effect, and in fact can be better customized to the colors of the species you keep. In the end there is still personal preference in play, and intensity and CRI play a part as well. I don't really think there is a complete scientific answer to the question, or even an answer that EVERYONE will agree looks best, so I guess you just gotta try different options until you find a light that makes your fish look best to you.
Hope this helps. :thumb:
 
#12 ·
Thanks DanniGirl, that explains alot and puts it more in perspective. BTW, do you have a vid or pics of how you did your background? I've never seen a DIY with that good of a natural detail to it.... that doesn't look so....DIY. Thanks
 
#14 ·
Jayse said:
BTW, do you have a vid or pics of how you did your background? I've never seen a DIY with that good of a natural detail to it.... that doesn't look so....DIY. Thanks
Oh, I can assure you it's my own creation. I've done some conceptual work so I've had practice working with Styrofoam.

As for that background, I may have a couple pictures but I'll have to find them. Hindsight being 20/20, I should have photographed the entire process. I'll be starting another background in a couple months and this time, the process will be documented. :thumb:
 
#15 ·
DanniGirl said:
Jayse said:
BTW, do you have a vid or pics of how you did your background? I've never seen a DIY with that good of a natural detail to it.... that doesn't look so....DIY. Thanks
Oh, I can assure you it's my own creation. I've done some conceptual work so I've had practice working with Styrofoam.

As for that background, I may have a couple pictures but I'll have to find them. Hindsight being 20/20, I should have photographed the entire process. I'll be starting another background in a couple months and this time, the process will be documented. :thumb:
Oh, not doubting it's yours.... meant it's got to be the best DIY I've seen. Most of the others you can tell it's a DIY, yours looks the most like real rock.

I'm planning mine out right now.... so I'm curious if yours is pieces glued on top of others, or is yours several layers and then cut into those layers for the dimension. If you used layers, how many sheets deep did you make it? I'm going to use a hot wire cutter and a hotknife to sculpt and cut mine since I've never seen them used for backgrounds. I'm hoping I can get the natural look like yours.... Originally bought all the stuff to do it as concrete, but decided to do drylok since plecos tend to strip the concrete away. Thanks for any pointers. If you happen to find those pics if you could PM to me I would appreciate it.
 
#16 ·
DanniGirl said:
Jayse said:
BTW, do you have a vid or pics of how you did your background? I've never seen a DIY with that good of a natural detail to it.... that doesn't look so....DIY. Thanks
Oh, I can assure you it's my own creation. I've done some conceptual work so I've had practice working with Styrofoam.

As for that background, I may have a couple pictures but I'll have to find them. Hindsight being 20/20, I should have photographed the entire process. I'll be starting another background in a couple months and this time, the process will be documented. :thumb:
sameee could you pm ur diy pictures to me aswell

also i used concrete on my backround so if i keep plecos will they strip the cement? i have a pretty strong layer of cement.. if so what other fish could i keep to help with algae

thanks
 
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