Lights for a 55g????

[lime]

Hello all, I just bought a 55g. tank from a garage sale. It only has 40w NO flourescent. Any suggestions how much lights do I need and were I can buy cheap PC's? I would only keep soft corals. Thanks.....

[HOT CORAL]

I have a 55 as well, when I set it up the first time a long while ago, many people told me it would be too difficult to build the rock work into a nice reef because it is narrow, thats not the case.

If you have the time, or craftmenship know how, build your own hood and get some VHO lighting, you will need about 4 bulbs. This will be suffiecent for most softies. But, if you desire to ever keep SPS, your better off investing in the MH.

I have four bulbs on my 55. You can find the water resistent endcaps (rubber) at most LFS. I puchased the ballasts at Grainger Supplies, they are online as well.

With this lighting I have been able to successfully keep alot of corals. Remember, if you go with VHO bulbs to replace them.

Hope this helps, enjoy!

[Heavan]

Lime,
If you have a LFS near you they may have a set-up of each (VHO and PC) that you could look at to help you decide. PC's or VHO's would work great for most softies but the light does look very differant and I think if you could see both in action it would help you decide.

You might also consider if you think you will ever want to upgrade to do SPS and Clams. If you think this may be the case you will want to plan your canopy and lights to allow you to use both the VHO & MH Or the PC & MH together. (Depending how far away thet upgrade will be) We run 6 MH on our 300 with 4 VHO's 2 on each side of the MH. We have also run a 60 gallon with 2 PC's at one end and a single MH at the other end. I am only suggesting this cuz I have heard so many guys that upgrade and have expensive lights sitting in their garage they can't use...
Renae

[Jimbo]

FYI,

Was just in "Home Depot the other day and they have compact flouresents that have a very blue/white lite. Big ones that are being used as outside flood lites. I don't know there kelvin rating, but something to look at price wise. A couple of these might do nicely for soft corals and they are resonably cheap. Hopefully someone else may comment on these, by know means take my word for it.



Have a bright day!

[Jimbo]

Hi all

The light at home depot is made by lights of america, heres a pic. It seemed really bright. Sent lights of america an email asking them the kelvin rating. If nothing else this may be good for the sump (refugium). It comes in a nice plastic case. Will keep you informed. 65watt, but I think they have brighter ones. This one was $29 and bulb included, bulb life is 10,000 hours.



Have a Bright day!

[nickg]

Hey lime, a new 55g to set up, very fun. FWIW, I have a 55, with vho lighting. It runs off a Icecap 660 ballest, with 4 4" 110 watt URI bulbs. I keep softies, and stonies, and the lighting is working good. It was alittle tricky to get the 4' bulbs to fit, but I belive URI makes a 46" 110w bulb for that reason. IMO, the vho look is awesome, and I think others here will agree 440 watts of vho is sufficient for a 55. You can get a retro kit with the Icecap ballest, URI bulbs, and end clips for around 375$. HTH

[OodleyBoodely]

I definately agree with Heaven regarding purchasing now with future upgrades in mind. Take your time and learn about the lighting options available - you won't regret it!

I went with a 440w VHO retrofit kit from lampsnow (names changed-perhaps someone else can get you the link?) It cost me $250 including Coralife bulbs. At the time, I didn't know that a48" lamp would not fit a 48" tank. The bulbs hang over about 1" on each side, which put a crimp in my DIY hood plans.

I believe you can request the 46.5" uri bulbs if you order this unit, though, which would be far better both due to size and quality of bulbs. One disadvantage of the 46.5" size is that you cannot use cheap Home Depot bulbs (I'm a poor reefer- I use NO 6500Ks in place of the Aqua suns-saves me $20 per bulb. Yes! You can use NO bulbs on an electronic ballast VHO system!)

Cost was the driving factor in my choice, and I'm not unhappy with it, either. I love the look of the VHOs, and when I'm ready, all I have to do is split them apart and add a DIY Halide system for a really great lighting system for sps. I do have a couple pieces of sps now which are growing well, but, perhaps not as colorful as they would be under halides. Softies and LPS look and grow great under the VHO. The only thing I would do differantly would be to go with an IceCap ballast for its greater versatility and the shorter length - but then, that would have cost me a lot more, too!

As for the LOA 65w yardlights like Jimbo pictured, they will grow softies, but are extremely yellow. I use one on my refugium and it will barely grow macro-in fact, of the 6 species of macro in my system, only C. prolifica will actually proliferate under it. Even, my green stripe 'shrooms which practically grow in the dark don't do well under them. So, IMO, it's just not worth the money, even it they seem cheap, to go with those lights on a 55-your tank is just too deep and that lighting too inadaquate.

Sorry for the ramble HTH

[Jimbo]

Hi all,

Those lights at Home Depot aren't the orangish kind, they actually have a blue tint. I'm going to get one for my for my sump.

[lime]

Hey all, do you think 3 of those LOA from HD would work out for my 55? Does it have the right spectrum? It looks good from the picture? Is the bulb a screw on?

Hey Jimbo, did LOA responded to your question about the spec on this lights?

[Jimbo]

Hi,

Found something on reef central. The LOA 65watt flood are 6700k and produce 8,255 lumens. Also walmart has the 65watt and fixture for $25. 3-4 of these would probally work fine. Also costco is supposed to have LOA worklights that are fully wired with switch for about $20

heres the link to reef central's thread

http://www.reefcentral.com/vbulletin...001/10/4/42501

Have a very very very bright day

[Stang69]

If it helps any I have 2 of the LOA lights on a 20 with a NO arenic and it looks great. Lots and lots of light


Jeff

[FishDaddy]

Hey Lime,
There are basically three ways to go about lighting a new tank:

1) Go ahead and buy the lighting system you want to end up with. For a 55 with soft corals in mind and the flexibility to add some LPS, you can't beat Ice Cap 660 with 4x110 VHO, IMHO. The beauty of the Ice Cap is that you can run either VHO or PC, or combination of both, and will even drive NO bulbs to extra intensity.
You can save some money with other electronic ballasts, such as the HelloLights http://www.lampsnow.com/ (formerly LampsNow), or others. By all means use an electronic ballast!
This involves the most up-front cash outlay but will actually save you money in the long run. The cost of first buying cheap lighting that can't be upgraded is money gone when you do buy the lights you need.

2) Have a plan, starting with a hood that will accomodate expanded lighting, and begin with an electronic ballast, with 2-3 bulbs, and add more as light demand increases. If you even think you might want to keep SPS or clams in the future, make the hood tall enough to hang MH later, using the VHO as supplemental lighting.

3) Start with relatively inexpensive make-do lights, such as the LOA 65w or even NO shoplights, and discard these when you eventually purchase the lighting you want. You are going to have well over $100 in 3 LOA's. You could use them later for sump or refugium lighting of course.

None of these approaches are wrong. It depends on whether you want to spend the cash now, or later. Good lighting is $$$$.

I actually went with option #3 when I started my 55. It came with an AGA 2x40w NO striplight. I added a second single 40w striplight. This got me through a few months but I only had a few shrooms and knew this was insufficient for what I wanted to do. I then got an Ice Cap 660 and added 2x110 VHO, using the double striplight shell and reflector to mount the VHO's (Using 46.5" bulbs as 48" bulbs with waterproof endcaps are too long.)
This has served quite well and is adequate for the soft and LPS corals I have. Of course, selection is limited to corals that do well under this lighting. The next phase is to build a proper hood and add two more VHO, building it long enough to accomodate 48" bulbs. I will have spent more money in the long run to end up with 4xVHO's than if I'd done it to start with.

HTH,
Dick

So you see, there is no right or wrong answer. For most of us it's a matter of what cash is available and plan accordingly.

[Doug1]

FWIW I like Icecap VHO, I think its the best bet for the foundation on which to build a lighting system. Yes you can run NO output 6500K bulbs at 'Near:" VHO levels. I havent used the cheaper VHO E-ballast, they werent around when I bought my Icecaps. In 3 yrs I have had one failure, contacted ICecap and it was fixed and returned in a week, no charge. Andy and Chris are awesome.
I Have a LOA model 9226( i think) 65 watt 6500K #30 floodlight and its not yellow, its a nice white/blue, tho about the same time my tank started throwing a major fit, it went into this wierd strobing malfunction. All in all considering what most LFS want for retro fit NO strip lights, I think they are hard to beat.
As requested t*f*a*

[rwithey]

I found an excellant source for DIY PC here:
http://ahsupply.com/

I bought the 4x55watt Brightkit - includes reflectors(very nice ones), true electronic ballasts, all wiring and every peice of hardware you could dream of needing. $125 for all. About $25 each of the four lamps, I got two antic & two 6500, although I would get the 10000 if I know what I know now. They also have free information on building a very inexpensive canopy out of standard sized lumber planks.

I haven't done this here yet, but I'm going to try and post some picks of it. Check them out - you can't go wrong, IMO.

[rwithey]

Here is inside 1/2 lights off