# Lighting Options for Eclipse 3



## Kerohime (Jan 10, 2011)

Hi Everyone, 

I've been trying to do some research on the lights for this Eclipse 3- 29 gallon system, and I just wanted to know if replacing the bulbs would suffice if I wanted to plant my tank with low to mid light plants. 

I bought this sytem years ago in high school and its the only tank I really kept, I actually set it up for my dad until he recently gave the tank back to me. 

I'm starting to really get into plants, and I want to maximize the lighting for plants in the tank. Perhaps even get into a CO2 system, but as many of you know the all-in-one filtration/lighting systems bogs me down a bit. I'm hoping to not have to replace the lights or filtration system. 

The tank is a standard 30x12x18 29 gallon tank. And the current lights are the ones from the original setup. It has two fluorescent tubes, and the sticker reads "replace with Eclipse lights or any other T8 tube up to 18 watts". That would give 18 x 2 = 36 and 36/29 = 1.24 watts per gallon. Which is pretty low. I measured the tube length and it is about 23" long. 
I just dont know what kind of light I can really put into the sockets, and what real options I have with bulbs. 

Maybe I'll have to just replace the entire top, but I find thats probably not necessary if I am just going to keep low to mid light requirement plants. 

Please let me know if there are any suggestions. 

Thanks!


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## Zebrapl3co (Mar 29, 2006)

I am using one. but I don't grow plants anymore. But did at one point in time. Low light plants - good. Medium light plants are still OK. high light plants like carpets - not very good.
Yes, you definately have to replace the bulb. CO2 helps a bit, but not much because the bio wheel will release most of the CO2 back into the air.

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