black background and lighting

hey everyone,
i have a 55 gallon tank with a painted black background , what type of lighting /watts would work best with this tank? thanks in advance. if u have similliar id love to see some pics.

It depends on what you are trying to do with the lights. Do you have plants? Do you like the look of algae?
t5 on a 29

10g Hospital all three sides painted T8s

55g t8s

125 t8s

All of these have different lights it really depends on you

hey man small world :)
just wondering what everybody uses, right now i have a 2 light setup on my tanks, and it really seems dark to me anyways and off hand i believe one bulb is 20watt if that helps and the other unsure of wattage but it has a pinkish look to it. no plants atm i may put in 2-3 fake ones to get some color in there , right now i have 2 rocks and 2 pvc pipes , looks kinda dull

I have a light fixture on one of my 55s that is weird, no matter what kind of bulb i put in it it glows pink.
Have you thought about looking for driftwood out near you?

where would be a good place to find some or are you talking stores?

check the water ways near you. I know there is a bunch. If you can make it out to Munden point park (VA Beach) there is a bunch.

Flippercon wrote:

check the water ways near you. I know there is a bunch. If you can make it out to Munden point park (VA Beach) there is a bunch.

oh ok so i can basically use any wood? is there anything i need to do it before i use it?

Boil it and scrub it, Oh yeah Scrub it again and again.

ok figured out my lighting problem, one bulb is a slyvania glo-lux 20 watt plant bulb and the other is a 20watt cool llight, i like the color the glo-lux puts out it makes the black background darker and fish colors brighter compared to the cool light where everything seems like the color is dull? what would be a replacement bulb be as far as coloring goes so i can replace both bulbs. btw mine are the fat type bulbs.

i live in munden point and yeah he's right, thats where i get all my driftwood. free is always the best. and i always soak mine in a big bucket of water with hardly any clorox and then rinse it off and soak it in 2 clean buckets of water to make sure theres no parasites. also the wood out here is very dry so most likely you will need to screw it to a piece of rock until it gets water logged enough to sink on its own

the tanks in the pic aren't yours are they flippercon? if soo... wow nice setup

bossman wrote:

the tanks in the pic aren't yours are they flippercon? if soo... wow nice setup

yes they are. Thank you

Russ722 wrote:

ok figured out my lighting problem, one bulb is a slyvania glo-lux 20 watt plant bulb and the other is a 20watt cool llight, i like the color the glo-lux puts out it makes the black background darker and fish colors brighter compared to the cool light where everything seems like the color is dull? what would be a replacement bulb be as far as coloring goes so i can replace both bulbs. btw mine are the fat type bulbs.

anyone have any idea what i need to match the glo-lux light output?

They are t12s but I'm not to sure if they make an equal in t12s unless you get the same type. Give it a while someone will chime in.Where are all the light experts?

ive seen a few different types / light output at home depot , like neutral, daylight,cool white and so on. just dont know which would be close

I am using two types of bulbs on my tanks. All my tanks have black backgrounds. I use a 40 watt aqua- glo anda 40 watt power-glo. Makes the colors of the fish pop! great if you have plants too! I dont have any plants due to the fact I am raising tropheus. They are like sheeep and will eat any kind of plants or if they cant, they will just rip them up.