Have an Oceanic Bowfront, or similar? Help/Suggestions

[WA98296]

If so how are you lighting it, and what do you have in your setup as far as livestock?

I am trying to decide how to light my tank. I have a 90 gallon Oceanic Bowfront, stand and hood. If you have this tank you understand that there is only so much space in the hood, on top of that the 90 gallon tank is TALL.

At a minimum I would like coraline to grow on LR, anything more would be a bonus. At this point I am mostly interested in keeping a some "beginner" fish, with a decent looking LR aquascape (anything that will grow on the rock would be so appreciated).

I now have a power compact with 4 - 65 watt 6700K bulbs for my FW setup. Ideally if there is anyway to re-bulb or change it in some way for this purpose I'd be a happy camper. Am I hoping for too much? I've tried reading up on this, but it's really hard to determine what would work in this particular setup.

Thanks for letting me know what you are doing....or, gee, I am the only person on earth that bought this tank!?

Thanks!!!

[skeety]

I have the 72gln.

I assume you're talking about all the room in the canopy? and how the heck to work lights into that?

interesting question that I've asked myself.

Right now, I just have a Coralife 48" Aqualight Plus, and I set it on top.

I KNOW I'm wasting light, as there's a good 12" between my lights, and the top of the water.

in the future, I plan to do one of two things:

1. Cut my canopy in half, and set the lights on the bottom half, and rig the upper half to be on TOP of the lights. Maybe make it attached, so when I lift the top half of the canopy, the lights come with it?

or

2. Just save these lights for another tank i'll eventually get, and make some sort of DIY light setup IN the canopy itself.

NOt sure which route I'm gonna take...but since my plan is to get some Acro's soon...I'm running out of time.

You can see my tank and everything I have in it at the link in my signiture.

Let me know if you have any more questions.

[WA98296]

Thanks for your input on lighting the bowfront. Do you mean your fixture sits on top of the canopy (sorry, I’m slowly learning here)? That’s why its so high from the top of the water? The 90 is the same footprint as the 72, only its deeper. The power compacts I have, with four bulbs, fits really nicely inside the canopy, but there isn’t room for much else.

I looked for info on the light you have, is it too big (48 x 12.8) to fit inside the canopy by a half inch or so? The lights themselves sound great, and by the way the stuff in your tank looks REALLY cool...

I need to get something inside my canopy, and something that won’t melt it. I have the black plastic type stand and canopy which I thought would hold up to water splashing better than some wood finishes might over time. I can’t find much info on my current fixture to see if I can up the wattage in the bulbs or not. I guess I’m going to assume that I can’t. However I could change the type of bulbs in there, or look for some other fixture to accomplish more wattage in my setup somehow.

Thanks again for your input.

[skeety]

yeah. My fixture rests right on top of the canopy (I took the canopy lid/cover thingies off).

and yes...my fixture is too big by about 1/2 an inch (much to my dismay).

if yours fit right in there...then you should be good to go.

If you want to up the wattage, you'll need to give us specific info on your lights. (Brand...balast company...specs...etc).

I don't know much about it...(but others on here do, and hopefully will chime in), but I believe you can put higher wattage bulbs in there...but you may have to upgrade the balast, and possibly the fittings. Again...not sure.

Wait for someone else to chime in!

btw...thanks for the nice words about my tank. *I* like it! hahahaha

[WA98296]

Darn that half inch!!

Anyway, this is what we happen to have now:
Coralife Freshwater Aqualight Deluxe Series - Double Linear Strip Four 65 watt 6700K straight pin base compact fluorescent lamps
Two on/off switches with two 8-foot power cords for separate timers
Built-in ballasts (I have no idea what they are rated for)
Two cooling fans


Thanks for your help. I've got to run, we are heading to Vancouver BC for the day. While there going to look for (hopefully) some cool saltwater shops, never know what we might see!

Thanks again!

[salt creepette]

couldnt you just use your existing pc fixture, but switch out the bulbs? i'd use two 10K daylight and two true actinic bulbs.

in my 120 (it was 2 feet deep and lights were 6 inches off the water) i used to have i used two 96watt 10K's and two actinic and I got tons of coralline growth. I currently have a 42 gallon with two 65 watt pc bulbs (one 10K, one actinic) and it is maintaining its growth. i also keep soft corals such as mushrooms, zoanthids, leather corals, and even a LPS euphyllia.

if youre trying for coralline growth, it likes lower light in the bluer spectrum, and doesnt flourish in water with a lot of phosphate.

[skeety]

Originally Posted by salt creepette

couldnt you just use your existing pc fixture, but switch out the bulbs?

He can switch out the color temperature, maybe...but NOT the wattage.

The ballast is only designed to handle up to a certain wattage. I'm pretty sure if he put 96watt bulbs in his 65 watt balast...he'd have problems.

[Superman]

Yes you are correct, you can only put 65/55 watt bulbs in your fixture. I would do what has already been stated, throw two 10,000k bulbs in there and two actinic bulbs in there (or one 7100k blue and one actinic) Kinda depends on how much blue light you want in your tank or how much purpleish light.

[salt creepette]

oh no, sorry, I didnt mean he should put 96 watt bulbs in his fixture; I was just giving an example of my 120 gallon! four 65 watters in a bluer color temp. (not the current 6700 K) should be plenty for a 90 to grow coralline and softies.

[Tasher80]

I have two 250 Watt DE MH's and two 110 Watt VHO's. I used shelf brackets to hang it from the wall then I cut the top off the canopy and hung the fixture inside this one about 3/4" just so light doesn't creep out.

[WA98296]

Thanks all for your input. I am trying to keep it all within the canopy (at least for now) so I think I'll try for simply the bulb change and see how that goes. Since this is new, it's learn as we go. I wish we could get a similar setup with four 96 watt bulbs.

By the way, we did find a really neat shop in B.C., the corals displays were amazing. It is J & L Aquatic Supply in Burnaby, BC Canada. They showed me some of their premium Tonga rock which was gorgeous. Sadly we can not bring it back across into the U.S., but wow, it was awesome looking. The corals were set on staggering shelves in tanks at eye level. The array was incredible. Three of the different coral displays had Purple Tangs! Now all we want to do is tour shops in Washington to see if we run across anything this fun.

Also they showed us their Euro-Reef skimmer up and running which was neat.

Thanks again for all your help.
Connie

[jfrich]

I have a pfo reflector with two 175watt 20,000K MH's and one 65watt 6,700k PC over My 46 gallon bowfront, and all of My stock is doing great. The hood is 36" X 18" approx. at the deepest point. everything fits fine, and there is plenty of space between all of the bulbs. I hope this helps You out some.


jfrich:

[whatevva]

Had to use a 3 foot fixture but it fits

[skeety]

Very nice mod!! Clever!

I ended up just mounting mine in the ceiling, and hangin' the fixture with chain. (I like that I can just raise the fixture up a couple links, and suddenly I have access to the tank AND light to see by).

I just always feel that due to the shape, and the fact that no one makes lights specifically for BF's...that I'm not getting the best distribution of light.

but my corals seem happy...so I stop worrying. hahah

thanks for sharing though. Really like that idea!