# Lighting for 135 Gallon



## Ghost Knife (Mar 12, 2008)

Hey everyone! I have been rather busy the last couple months. I am putting down concrete flooring this week and will be ready to setup my 135G tank next weekend (hopefully). I have ordered two Stealth heaters and two Emperor 400 filters, but I seem to have run into an issue with lighting. The cheapest I have found for a 72" hood fixture is $162. Is there anything any cheaper out there?

EDIT: Please move to Freshwater. Sorry about the mistake.


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## frogman5 (Mar 13, 2007)

you could make ur own lights.

ps in my opinion u should have got some aquaclear 110's instead of the emperors


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## k-dawg- (Feb 2, 2006)

are you going to keep any plants?


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## justintrask (Jun 29, 2008)

instead of a 72" fixture, try to get 2 36". It will be much cheaper. MUCH cheaper. I ran into the same problem, except I didnt do a planted tank, so I just used a 48" shoplight.


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## COM (Mar 15, 2008)

I guess the lighting selection really depends on what you intend to grow (or not) in the tank.

BTW twin Emperor 400s might be a little light for a tank that big. I have twin 400s on my 55 gallon and I'm not 100% satisfied with their performance.


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## justintrask (Jun 29, 2008)

i would go dual canisters rather than HOB on a tank that size


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## Ghost Knife (Mar 12, 2008)

Well, I have pretty much decided on going with the 2 Emperor 400s. If that turns out to be insufficient then I will add additional filtration. As far as lighting I think I will just move my 48" strip from the 55G. I have kept the same Amazon Swords in the 55G tank for months using less than 50W of light so I'll just add more swords in the 135G and see what happens.


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## COM (Mar 15, 2008)

I would recommend that you at least double the lighting and go with no less than four Emperor 400s for a tank that big. They don't really run at 400 gallons per hour. Not even close. Maybe 150 to 200.


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## Ghost Knife (Mar 12, 2008)

COM said:


> I would recommend that you at least double the lighting and go with no less than four Emperor 400s for a tank that big. They don't really run at 400 gallons per hour. Not even close. Maybe 150 to 200.


I am going to do some tests when I am cycling the tank and see what my results are. If I need to add 1 or 2 more filters I will definitely do that. Thanks for the information everyone.


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