Hey everyone,
Steve Poland here, Steve Poland Cichlids, stevepolandcichlids.com.
And in this week's video I wanted to talk a little bit about lighting, because I think
it can make a really big difference in the overall enjoyment of your aquarium.
I'm not trying to grow anything in my tank.
In fact, in most cases I'm trying not to grow something, which of course is algae.
So I'm going to focus on the impact that lighting can have on the look of your tank, because
I have a few different options on hand that I've collected over time.
All of the lights will be displayed on my 6 foot long, 125 gallon tank.
The lighting will be pulled all the way forward on the tank, which is something that I highly
recommend you do because it really helps you see the fish a lot better.
No factors other than the lighting will change.
Now it's tough to find lights that are 6 feet long, so most people usually go with one 4
foot light or two 3 foot lights.
I'm going to start off with a couple of 4 foot lights.
First is a 4 foot Aqueon fluorescent strip light with a 32 watt bulb.
Any time you have a 4 foot light on a 6 foot tank you're going to have dark corners.
I don't necessarily mind that as much as I thought I would, but though this light doesn't
look as washed out in person as it does on camera, I'm still not a fan of the bright
focus in the center and the reddish tone that it gives the grey rocks.
Next we have a different 4 foot solution.
This time it's a nice LED light that's pretty popular, the Current Satellite Freshwater
Plus.
Now right away I like it a lot better than the 4 foot fluorescent, but part of the reason
for that is that this light has a ton of different settings and it even allows you to tweak those
settings to create custom colors.
It has a remote control which I never really used other than to change these settings but
it's kind of cool to have.
It even has weather patterns like this thunderstorm setting which my kids love but my fish hate.
Here is a comparison of these two 4 foot lights so you can see the difference.
Now for a few 6 foot long options.
This is the tank with two 36 inch Aqueon strip lights.
Now one thing worth noting is that these fixtures are 3 feet long but the bulbs are only 24
inches, centered in the middle of each fixture.
That doesn't seem to impact the look at all though, and while I like this a lot better
than the 4 foot fluorescent, it's still too bright for me and as with all basic fluorescent
fixtures there is no way to change it.
Next up is the first of two different LED solutions that I bought from eBay.
I grabbed this one because it was one single 6 foot long fixture which as I mentioned before
is tough to find.
I also didn't have a canopy on my tank at the time and I liked the look of one long
light running all the way down the tank.
This is a nice fixture and the light hits the corners but my biggest problem with it
is that it has only these two settings.
This one, where only a portion of the LEDs are turned on, which is ok but a bit too dim,
and then this one which is like you're standing on the surface of the sun.
Last but not least we have the lights that I have been running most recently.
These are two 3 foot LEDs from eBay.
There are two things I really like about these lights.
One is that they have a reasonable default brightness setting.
They don't look quite this bright in person.
And second is that they have a few blue actinic LEDs interspersed with the whites which looks
really cool with these African Cichlids.
Here is a comparison of these three 6 foot lights so you can see the difference.
And here is a comparison of the Current Satellite Plus next to the 3 foot LEDs that I currently
run.
I think I might be actually be switching.
So which lights to you think look the best?
Let me know in the comments.
I'll include the names of all of these fixtures in the video description along with links.
As always, if you enjoyed this video please hit like, and if you want to see more be sure
to subscribe.
Have a good one!