marine aquarium light

[reef150]

Geeeeeeeeeeezeeee!!! the metal halide lights are over $650 at my local store! Talking about burning a hole in someone's wallet. Does anyone know what type of lighting should be appropriate for a tank with the size of 48" and/or 92" in length?

Im thinking about only hosting 1 portion of the tank dedicated to the live coral so that way i dont waste too much money buying lighitng for the entire tank or at least use fluorescent lighting for the rest of the tank. I'm thinking the minimum for the most sensitive corals .. what do you guys suggests? would this be a good idea?

thanks

[SouthernReefer]

have you looked thru the premium aquatics or marine depot online catalogs? there are several options that they offer from d.i.y. parts to complete assemblies. you can save money that way!

[thefatman]

agreed. for lighting, your BEST bet is going to be an online vendor, even with shipping factored in.

start with the trt sponsors. premium has great prices on lights.

personally, i like VHO better than halide. they are cheaper, and imo do more for your dollar.

i run 440w vho (4 tubes) and 2 ballasts. i'd say my lighting was probably less than 300. and if you are vey good at following directions, then DIY is the way to go. 2 ballasts, 4 lights. or 1 ballast and 4 lights. and wire it up yourself.

much much cheaper.

a reflector is a good thing, if you have the cash for it. if you dont, and need to save a few bucks here and there, aluminum foil and some spray glue can do wonders for a diy reflector.

[reef150]

hmmm....so many acroynms. mind rephrasing? yep, i was considering the VHO's but the books say Metal Halide combos with VHOs is the best way to go...*shrugs* looking for directions. My tank wont be started for another 2 months or so, i've got time to think bout it.

[thefatman]

trt = thereeftank.com

VHO=very high output ie: flourescent lighting.

imo = in my opinion

DIY = do it yourself ie: handyman special


yes a combo of vho and halide is good/best. but you dont have to START with both either. you can add the vho to get the tank started, and add the halide as the tank is cycling.

it would be two months after startign up, before you'd have any real need for the halide lighting, since there wont be any corals or fish in it. jsut rock and substrate.

[reef150]

i dont mean to sound stupid, but from the way you are saying it, these halide and fho are housed in hoods. I guess the 500 bucks are just for the bulbs or light strip lamps?!

[wanareef]

This might help you - DIY MH's for under $100 - ea. http://aquarium.union.rpi.edu/rpi.html go into articles then you'll know which one. I did this and cost just a little over $120. If you can DIY, you will save a lot. I have diy most of the equipment for the reef tank and it has saved a lot and also fun to make.

Now a little word about the Saki's. These are Mercury Vapor bulbs, that burn @ 6500k. A lot has been written up about them and these bulbs have the best par for the money. (photo adaptive radiance ??) They will bun a "yellow" hue in the tank and therefore need to have actinics to supplement them - aka/ add a little blue to the light.

I run the Saki's (Iwaski's) with 4x URI super actinics powered by the Workhorse 7. These are electronic ballasts that cost less than the Ice Cap's, but still do the same thing they do, just less $$. (ask me about them,PM) The coral growth is just great. The polyps on the digitia's just expand out and make it look bushy and you can keep just about any type of coral you want.

HTH

[dougc]

I used VHO with IceCap ballasts on my old tank and it worked fine, but I am going with 250 watt ReefOptix III pendants on my new tank. Your choice of lighting depends on what you want to keep. I kept SPS under the VHO, but only at the top of the tank. I did not get the kind of coloration and growth that I hope to see under MH, though. Softies and LPS were perfectly happy under my VHO lighting. I was unable, though to keep birdnest (Seriatopora) under the VHO, which is one of my favorite corals.

The ReefOptix III pendants use double-ended bulbs, which with a good reflector, put more light into the tank than single-ended bulbs of the same wattage. I am using IceCAp ballasts, which require some DIY wiring, but nothing really frightening. For a plug-and-play installation, you could go with the Sunlight Supply ballasts. Each pendant, ballast, and bulb was about $300. For a 48" tank, you would need 2 pendants, since each will cover about 2' of tank.

Premium Aquatics and Ocean Encounter carry the ReefOptix pendants. Not sure about Marine Depot, since they are on the west coast, which means longer shipping times for me, so I haven't bought from them.