Path: utzoo!hoptoad!ihnp4!ucbvax!agate!eos!ames!mailrus!husc6!yale!Ram-Ashwin
From: Ram-Ashwin@cs.yale.edu (Ashwin Ram)
Newsgroups: alt.aquaria
Subject: Re: motor burnout on AquaClear filters?
Message-ID: <26997@yale-celray.yale.UUCP>
Date: 12 Apr 88 18:08:32 GMT
References: <363@bacchus.DEC.COM> <26859@yale-celray.yale.UUCP> <5558@spool.cs.wisc.edu>
Sender: root@yale.UUCP
Reply-To: Ram-Ashwin@cs.yale.edu (Ashwin Ram)
Organization: Computer Science, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520-2158
Lines: 29
In-reply-to: farrens@speedy.cs.wisc.edu (Matthew Farrens)

In article <5558@spool.cs.wisc.edu>, farrens@speedy (Matthew Farrens) writes:
> We have two 39 gallon tanks, one with an undergravel filter with a power head
> and the other one with two big AquaClear filters. 
>              Anyway, I would very much like to hear about other setups.

We have both an undergravel and a power filter on our 40-gallon.  We use a power
head because it's a lot more silent, but keep it turned way down because the
plants don't do so well with too much UG filtering.  That's the reason we use
both a UG and an external, since we don't have enough UG flow to do it alone.
Also, the external is good for getting rid of floating crud, such as stuff
kicked up after cleaning.

>                                                              this allows a long
> cheap 4-foot shop-light to be hung above each group of 3 tanks and one can play
> with the lighting as one pleases.  We currently have one regular bulb and one
> grow-light bulb in each of the two shop-lights.

We've done the same thing, but over a 40-gallon.  Yeah, it works well -- I think
it's better (and a lot cheaper) than a ready-made hood.  It would be nice,
though, to be able to control the two lights independently.  If you turn off the
regular (cool) light, the grow (warm) light is dim enough that you can simulate
a reasonably good dawn and dusk period.  The fish are much happier with this
because a sudden transition from bright light to darkness (or v.v.) bothers them
a lot, some more than others.  Also, besides being good for the plants, the two
kinds of lights make the tank look a lot nicer.

One question -- how much wattage should one use?

-- Ashwin.