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Hello again, everyone.
Recently I ordered lots of supplies to set up a well-planted 30gal tank for
Apistogramma
cacatuoides. As you may know, finding shop-lighting for 36"
aquariums is hard. Very
hard and oh-so-frustrating. I found no double-bulb 36inchers and eventually
purchased
three singles only to find that they had to be wired directly into the
electrical system.
I also had a heck of a time finding 36" bulbs like Gro-Lux's or Chroma50 /
Sunshine bulbs.
36" seemed to be the only one not there.
Well, luckily a friend I know owns a pet shop and sold me a complete used
36" Perfecto SHO
light hood with reflector and two 5400K bulbs for $90. Great for the
plants... this will be a
whopping 110 Watts over a 30 gallon tank... nearly four watts per
gallon. I was reading
that Apistogramma are quite shy in these bright conditions. I plan on
having a few
overhanging / floating (you know what I mean!) Italian Vals, but not too
many floating plants,
but luckily I will have lots of hiding places among plants, driftwood,
slate caves, and coconut
caves. I am wondering if I just ruined my chances of keeping Apistogramma
-- and in a spendy
fashion. I would also like to keep hatchets as sort of dithers and also for
the contrast... but
they are top-dwellers. Will they be blinded by this kind of light? I know I
am. Have there been
any studies with light levels and apisto behavior?
Thanks again.
-- Derek Wingert
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