Aquarium Lighting 101: How to Choose The Best Light for Your Aquarium — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00hello everyone this is Jason for
2. 0:01primetime aquatics in this video I
3. 0:02wanted to address aquarium lighting
4. 0:05especially if you're new to aquarium
5. 0:07hobby picking out the right light for
6. 0:08your fish tank can sometimes be a little
7. 0:10bit confusing and a little bit tricky
8. 0:12and it can have a lot of implications on
9. 0:14the way your tank looks so we're going
10. 0:16to talk about our favorite lights we're
11. 0:18going to talk about why it's important
12. 0:19to choose the correct light hope you
13. 0:21enjoy the video so why is choosing the
14. 0:23correct fish tank lights so important
15. 0:25well there's a couple reasons why one
16. 0:26you don't want to waste your money some
17. 0:28fish tank lights can be very expensive
18. 0:30and you want to make sure you're
19. 0:32choosing the light that fits your needs
20. 0:34the second thing is choosing the right
21. 0:36light may actually help you maintain
22. 0:38your aquarium a little bit easier if
23. 0:41you've got a light that's way too bright
24. 0:42and maybe you don't have a planted tank
25. 0:44that could potentially create a big
26. 0:46algae problem later on and so we want to
27. 0:49try to avoid that the third thing is
28. 0:51reliability the last thing you want to
29. 0:54do is buy a light for your fish tank and
30. 0:55then six months later or a year later
31. 0:57have the thing break and now you're
32. 0:59stuck having to buy another one so we're
33. 1:01gonna take a look at four lights that we
34. 1:03really like talked about why we like
35. 1:05them and why they might be a good fit
36. 1:07for your aquarium so one of the lights
37. 1:08we're really not gonna talk about in
38. 1:10this video are the fluorescent lights
39. 1:11and there's a couple reasons for that
40. 1:12one we really don't use them in our fish
41. 1:15room anymore we've got a couple floating
42. 1:17around the fish room in case of an
43. 1:18emergency but I don't want the fact that
44. 1:20they're so bulky they give off a decent
45. 1:22amount of heat they don't tend to last
46. 1:24as long as the LEDs so you have to
47. 1:25replace those fluorescent bulbs and I
48. 1:27also don't like the fact that they tend
49. 1:29to dim over time and if you've got a
50. 1:31planted tank that can have an impact on
51. 1:33your plants so we're really just gonna
52. 1:35be staying with the LEDs in this one all
53. 1:37right so let's talk about some of the
54. 1:38lights that we use based on our needs I
55. 1:40think if you're someone who's got a fish
56. 1:42tank with no plants or your plants are
57. 1:44beginner plants generally speaking low
58. 1:47to medium light plants the beams work
59. 1:49lights that we've been using more and
60. 1:50more in our fish room are really good
61. 1:52and by the way we've got reviews on all
62. 1:54the lights that we're featuring in this
63. 1:56video I'll put them in the upper right
64. 1:57hand corner as well as in the
65. 1:58description below if you want a lot more
66. 2:00information on them I will also put
67. 2:02Amazon affiliate links down in the
68. 2:03description below in case you're
69. 2:04interested in purchasing them but the
70. 2:06beams works lights for us were again
71. 2:08we're using them more and more because
72. 2:10one they are a budget-friendly light and
73. 2:12so
74. 2:13even just for a twelve-inch like you
75. 2:14looking at like $17 on Amazon you want
76. 2:17to go to 24 inch so something's gonna
77. 2:18fit like a 20 gallon that's like $33 and
78. 2:21if you want to go a full 48 inches like
79. 2:23on a 55 or a 75 you're looking at like
80. 2:2547 dollars so the cost is relatively low
81. 2:28and we found a couple things with these
82. 2:30beams works lights one they've been
83. 2:32reliable four so we haven't had any
84. 2:33break on us and two I like the color
85. 2:36spectrum that they're producing when you
86. 2:38look at these tanks that have the beams
87. 2:39works light so for instance our sipper
88. 2:41chromis tank I like the light that's
89. 2:43being produced Joanna's side has got
90. 2:45more and more the beams works lights
91. 2:46which we're going to show in future
92. 2:48videos we have one in our 29 gallon
93. 2:50that's been working well as well as some
94. 2:53on our 10 gallon tanks and all of these
95. 2:55have given us a really nice spectrum of
96. 2:57light I like the color temperature of
97. 2:59the light and again for the price it's
98. 3:02really hard to argue so if you're
99. 3:03looking for something that is going to
100. 3:05be just for a beginner tank you're not
101. 3:07even sure if you're gonna stay in the
102. 3:08Hobby you don't have any plants or your
103. 3:10plants are really easy to grow plants
104. 3:11this could be a really good option for
105. 3:14you
106. 3:14the other cool thing about the lights is
107. 3:16that has a place for an inline timer and
108. 3:18also a lot of lights you can actually
109. 3:19make the switch flip the switch and now
110. 3:22you get that night timer that the moon
111. 3:23lighting where you've got kind of a blue
112. 3:25light showing and so that's kind of a
113. 3:27cool feature that a lot of people enjoy
114. 3:28alright so the next light that I really
115. 3:30like is something that you could
116. 3:31consider especially if you're newer to
117. 3:33the hobby are the finnex stingray lights
118. 3:35the vast majority of lights that we have
119. 3:38in our fish room we've got around 70
120. 3:40tanks at this point I would say probably
121. 3:42some around 50 to 55 of them have the
122. 3:45finnex stingray lights now many of them
123. 3:47are the older Finnick stingrays but we
124. 3:49also looked at the finnex stingray two
125. 3:51in a previous video again that's in the
126. 3:52upper right hand corner as well as in
127. 3:54the description below and on our Julita
128. 3:55chromis tank that is the light that's on
129. 3:58that tank and it's been just as good as
130. 4:00the original finnex stingray is actually
131. 4:01a little bit brighter I think that
132. 4:03there's one thing that maybe I wish that
133. 4:05would be changed about that light is
134. 4:06it's silver and I tend to like all my
135. 4:09equipment just to kind of blend in the
136. 4:10tank and be as inconspicuous as possible
137. 4:13so I prefer that light to be black it is
138. 4:15silver it's not a huge deal but it's
139. 4:17also been a really good light a lot of
140. 4:20nice color in fact for the stingrays for
141. 4:22the price I really like the color
142. 4:24temperature I like the spectrum that
143. 4:26you're gay
144. 4:27I love the intensity but they're going
145. 4:29to be a little bit more expensive than
146. 4:30the beams works lights which is more
147. 4:32kind of a budget light and so for
148. 4:34instance for the sting rate for the
149. 4:35finnex stingray 2 for a 12-inch light
150. 4:38you're looking at like $35 so it's
151. 4:39almost twice the price of a beams work
152. 4:41the 24 inch is 57 dollars the 48 inches
153. 4:45up to $72 so you're looking at almost
154. 4:48twice the cost of beams work again I
155. 4:50personally think the Finnick stingrays
156. 4:52that quality's a little bit nicer the
157. 4:54look on the tank is a little nicer
158. 4:56they're both gonna grow you're low light
159. 4:58plants they're both gonna grow mostly
160. 5:00blue medium light plants and both look
161. 5:02great in an unplanted tank but you
162. 5:04really have to be the one to decide is
163. 5:06it worth twice the cost for us I really
164. 5:08like these lights and in some cases I
165. 5:10think they are you may feel differently
166. 5:12that's why we're giving you lots of
167. 5:13different options so what if you've got
168. 5:15plants that are a little bit harder to
169. 5:16grow maybe higher light maybe you want
170. 5:19some more features well I think at this
171. 5:20point now you're starting to look at
172. 5:22maybe something like the Fluevog 3.0
173. 5:24aquarium co-op sent us for about a year
174. 5:26ago when we built out the 125 gallon
175. 5:29double stand and those lights have been
176. 5:31really awesome
177. 5:32now you're gonna pay a little bit more
178. 5:34for these lights so for instance for the
179. 5:35Fluevog 3.0 they have a 15 inch that's a
180. 5:37hundred and forty dollars you have a 24
181. 5:39inch at 150 and the 48 inch is going for
182. 5:42two hundred and ten dollars on aquarium
183. 5:44cocom at the time of this video no yes
184. 5:47they are significantly more expensive
185. 5:48than the other lights we've mentioned so
186. 5:49far but you do get a lot of features one
187. 5:52the light intensity these lights can be
188. 5:54very bright if you need them to be for
189. 5:56your higher light plants they are fully
190. 5:59adjustable you can adjust the spectrum
191. 6:00you can adjust the light intensity you
192. 6:02can adjust the timer all this stuff can
193. 6:05be done done through a phone app that I
194. 6:07have found to be extremely easy to use
195. 6:09through bluetooth they hook right in
196. 6:11they've been really good lights they do
197. 6:13have a nice slim profile which is really
198. 6:16nice and again I like the darker color
199. 6:18just like the beams work so that's gonna
200. 6:20really kind of not stand out on the top
201. 6:22of your fish tank but if you're looking
202. 6:23for a high quality light that's going to
203. 6:25pretty much grow anything that you would
204. 6:26need and have a lot of features they
205. 6:29have cloudy light features they have the
206. 6:31thunderstorm feature lots of features
207. 6:34really nice light definitely worth
208. 6:36checking out so maybe you're looking for
209. 6:38a different look to your tank
210. 6:40a little bit different than what we've
211. 6:41talked about so far the last thing and
212. 6:44that is the Kessel a 160 w ease Kessel
213. 6:47actually supplied us with a couple of
214. 6:48these lights a little while back about
215. 6:50seven months ago or so to do some
216. 6:52testing and evaluation we have them on a
217. 6:5475 gallon tank and they have been a very
218. 6:57different look they've added a very
219. 6:59different look to our fish room these
220. 7:01are no doubt high-end lights however
221. 7:03what you're getting for that is
222. 7:05something different from the others one
223. 7:06we're not talking about an LED strip
224. 7:08light anymore
225. 7:09these lights are fully adjustable as
226. 7:11well you can fully adjust both the
227. 7:13spectrum and the intensity super super
228. 7:16super high quality light you can sense
229. 7:18that right from the minute that you put
230. 7:20your hands on them and set them up they
231. 7:21are definitely a professional sort of
232. 7:24light now you're going to pay a lot of
233. 7:26money for this one to do about 24 inches
234. 7:29of fish tank you're looking at around
235. 7:31$300 so for the 75 gallon we're looking
236. 7:34somewhere in that six to seven hundred
237. 7:36dollars depending on the features that
238. 7:37includes the light and the gooseneck
239. 7:39stand and they also have a spectral
240. 7:41controller again all this we go in a lot
241. 7:43more detail in the dish in the
242. 7:45description below when we do that video
243. 7:46review but these lights what they do is
244. 7:49they give that shimmering effect to a
245. 7:52fish tank now in our tank it's a little
246. 7:53bit more pronounced because we're using
247. 7:55sponge filters and so we're getting a
248. 7:57lot more surface agitation but if you
249. 7:59were using a hang on bag or maybe a
250. 8:01canister filter that would be a little
251. 8:03bit more subdued and I think it also
252. 8:05comes to a little bit stronger on camera
253. 8:06because in real life the look is really
254. 8:09really cool now if you're someone
255. 8:10sensitive to all that flickering that's
256. 8:12maybe not something you'd want to do but
257. 8:14again in real life it's not quite as
258. 8:16intense as it looks when you're looking
259. 8:17at it in person but this is a great
260. 8:19light it's going to grow any type of
261. 8:21plant that you could possibly imagine
262. 8:22it's going to give you that professional
263. 8:24look what you are going to pay for that
264. 8:26so again the purpose of this video is
265. 8:28one let's consider what we need when
266. 8:31we're choosing our aquarium lights if
267. 8:33you don't have a planted tank you can go
268. 8:35with those lower end lights and still
269. 8:36get a really nice look and even if you
270. 8:38have a planted tank something like a
271. 8:40mid-range light like the finnex stingray
272. 8:42twos would be good if you're starting to
273. 8:44get into something more advanced and you
274. 8:46really want the ability to control the
275. 8:48spectrum the temperature the intensity
276. 8:51those Fluevog 3.0 and if you
277. 8:53they want that shimmering effect now
278. 8:54you're looking at the castle lights but
279. 8:56these are the lights that we use and
280. 8:58there are many other lights on the
281. 8:59market some of which we have in our
282. 9:01official but these are the main four
283. 9:02that I feel comfortable given the amount
284. 9:05of time that we've used them in
285. 9:06recommending so I hope you enjoyed the
286. 9:08video I hope you found it useful if you
287. 9:10did share subscribe and we'll see in the
288. 9:12next one