[eagl97]

Has any tried painting the glass in iside the hood with a thin coat of white paint to dim the light?

 

[eagl97]

does any one have ideas on how to dim the lighting?

 

[iceblue]

What type of lighting are you currently useing? You may just need a lower wattage bulb.

 

[MightyWarMonger]

White will only make it brighter by reflecting the light try blcak instead and if you can rais the lighting higher the futher from the tank the dimmer it will get.

 

[Deeda]

If you have fluorescent lights, they cannot be dimmed unless you have a special dimmable ballast. Usually you are stuck with what you already have though you might be able to change the bulb.

What is the make & model of the fixture you have now? And what size tank is it on?

 

[eagl97]

the tank is a 50 gal 4 foot tank with 15watt 2 fluorescent bulbs

 

[eagl97]

the tank is a 50 gal 4 foot tank with 2 15watt fluorescent aquairium bulbs

 

[crabs]

If I read this right you were talking about painting the glass top of the tank?

I wouldnt do that. You also say you have two flu tubes, you can just take one of the tubes out. that will lower the light levels or put a sheet of plastic over the glass top of the tank, that should also filter out some light.

 

[eagl97]

it's 2 separate hoods so if I turn 1 of the lights off half the tank is dark. I was thinking of painting the glass inside the hood or maybe painted around the rim of the hood glass that would reduce the amount of light that comes through.

 

[eagl97]

I decided to use dark blue duct tape instead of paint. I placed a strip tape on the along the glass reducing the amount of visible glass in half but it still was to bright so I placed 2 5inch pieces of tape along the outer edges of the hood glass cutting the it down to about only 1/3 of the amount of glass showing.

 

[zazz]

some light fittings come with cardboard slid into the outer reflection groove to protect it.

now if that could be replaced by film ...the kind that photographers use for colouring and dimming lights and flashes.....could be quite fun to mess with all those possiblities.

 

[bulldogg7]

hard to believe 2 15watt bulbs are too bright, you could try car window tinting. It's kinda cheap, and removable. If one layer doesn't do it just add another after the first one dries. Do you have a background yet?

 

[eagl97]

my fish just aren't the color they should be and I read if your light is to bright it will affect your fish's color. I have maingano and the dom male is in color but the rest are a bluish gray with one dark stripe and if I turn off the lights they color back up

 

[iceblue]

30 watts is not a lot of lighting for a 50g tank and it could be that your bulbs are old and don't put out the same kind of light they did when they were new. Bulbs come in many different color ranges sometimes refered to as thier kelvin or k value. The lower the k the more yellow that's going to stand out and the higher the kelvin the more the blue will show. 5000 to 5500k is considered high noon daylight but this really is an over simplification of lighting and thier are whole books that cover how to light something up, but it will get you in the ballpark.

You might try replacing your bulbs with a Coralife 50/50 and a blue actinic 10,000k each in the 40 watt range. You may be suprised by the colors your fish will show under this lighting.

 

[eagl97]

Where would I find these bulbs at the LFS?

 

[zazz]

looking at utube vids of lake malawi the light levels seem quite subdued .... when i had a 40w single in a 150g it hurt my eyes and the fish looked like they where overlit ...but then my room is pretty dark.

 

[iceblue]

Most lfs's would carry the Colormax and if they have a good selection of saltwater the 10,000 k also.

You might take a look at the selections here http://www.cichlid-forum.com/reviews/ca ... ?CatID=301 and check some of the reviews of places that sell them here. http://www.cichlid-forum.com/reviews/re ... ?CatID=003

 

[Adrnalnrsh]

As a general rule 2 watts per Gallon is a good amount of light.

Your not even at 1 watt per light so I can't see this being too bright.

 

[chefkevin]

As a general rule 2 watts per Gallon is a good amount of light.

Your not even at 1 watt per light so I can't see this being too bright.

Does this apply for even tanks with no plants? The light I have bought for the tank I will be setting up is 48inches with 2 65watt 50/50 daylight/actinic for 130 watts for 72 gallons which is aprox. 1.8watts/gallon?