Tropical Fish Forum
Tropical Fish Keeping => General Fishkeeping Chat => Topic started by: evan47 on June 10, 2014, 07:09:29 PM
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hi, my tank just has two basic strip lights fitted for normal daytime lighting.
they just switch off and on, no dimmers and they seem a little harsh to me.
has anyone got any tips on how to diffuse them a little please?
i was thinking of a large, flat (artificial) plant floating horizontally on the water surface as water lettuce is not really an option as it will all gather at one end of the tank.
thanks
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It's hard to think of anything you could do to a standard fluorescent tube to diffuse the lighting. Standard tubes are a pretty diffuse source of lighting as it is, they produce diffuse light by design. What you are perceiving as a lack of diffuseness would be, I imagine, more a factor of how much light there is. Even twin T8 lights, the cheap basic sort, produce a lot of light considering the volume of the tank. If you have real plants, you shouldn't mess around with this; But if you don't, you could try removing one of the tubes. The problem is that some fittings will refuse to work with only one tube.
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there are no live plants in the tank and the system will not work with only one tube.
i have thought of darkening or removing the reflectors from behind the tubes but removal may cause the lid of the tank to warp due to the heat.
i was hoping that a floating plant (must be in one piece) would give a sort of dappled effect. just wondering if anyone has tried it.
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It might be worth giving some natural floating plant a try if you're concerned about the harshness of your lights - even if they gather at one side of your tank this will at least provide partial cover and give your fish the choice as to which lighting conditions they prefer to be in. I have floating plant pushed to one side by the filter flow and find that my cardinal tetras particularly like to gather underneath it.
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Also, you can get some plants which will happily grow up to the surface and then stretch across - this may provide some of the effect you're after but they obviously take time to grow!
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hi, any idea what they are called?
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I think there will be quite a few varieties which would do this - the one that does it best in my tank is red ludwigia (ludwigia repens).
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Vallisneria of a number of different species will do that, too.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v403/yeaulman/martin_large2.jpg)
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Vallisneria of a number of different species will do that, too.
- See more at: http://www.thinkfish.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,1004.msg9646/topicseen.html#msg9646
i can confirm that mine grows about a inch a day as fast as i trim it it grows right back up again :vcross:
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These are my sprawling ludwigia (with a few fuzzy fish in the foreground). At least I think it's ludwigia...... :)
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hi, i have found a way to get the results that i wanted. i simply added one indian almond leaf to my tank.
the tannins in the leaf have darkened the water a little making the lighting a little less harsh.