[kellers]

I currently have a marineland double bright LED on my 30" 29g, it's on a timer and everything, but it's lacking something to me. I love the way it looks on my tank, it's very aesthetically pleasing, and for the most part I enjoy the way it makes my tank look, the shimmer is great even if it is a little on the yellow-y side. The thing that's dragging me down about it is that I can pretty much only have it on a day timer cause there isn't a separate switch for the moonlights to give them their own timer. I have to manually turn on the moon lights and override the timer at night, then make sure I set the timer again and have the daylights ready to come on before I go to bed. I REALLY want a 24 hour system that preferably can do a dawn/dusk effect as well as day and moonlights. Moonlights are not critical, though, cause I can always just add an LED strip to whatever, but the dawn/dusk I really want. I'm getting $75 back for my ML light to put towards my new light, so with that $75 included, my budget is about $150 and I get everything at cost+15% provided it's something one of our vendors carries - if they don't then I'm stuck paying retail online.

Currently, these are the fixtures I've been considering, since I can return my ML LEDs to the vendor through work and exchange it through the store for something else.

1. Coralife Lunar Aqualight Deluxe 30" http://tinyurl.com/35c4sas
probably my top pick, also the most expensive. Through work it would be $165.32

2. Coralife Aqualight without lunar 30" http://tinyurl.com/3xl4o7v
second pick, no lunars, about $132.48

3. Coralife Aqualight HO T5 Dual Lamp 30" http://tinyurl.com/3xl8cjr
no rank, cheap, T5 instead of PC, doesn't have dusk/dawn that I can tell - seems like it's one switch one plug on/off, about $92.77

4. Current USA Nova Extreme 30" 2x24 T5 http://tinyurl.com/35mm8ka
no rank, T5 instead of PC, no dusk/dawn effect, $66.41

5. Current USA Sundial 30" T5HO http://tinyurl.com/36tvmr4
only-if-I-can-justify-it rank, T5, dusk/dawn/moonlights with built-in timers, about twice my budget through work at $284.05, but obviously I can get it elsewhere cheaper....

Anyone have any good experience with any of these? I've read at least a handful of good reviews about all of them.

Thanks in advance!

 

[kellers]

Side note, I'm doing a FOWLR tank, so I don't have any specific lighting needs as far as spectrum, just light cycle.

 

[chrisd]

i have never used any of those lights but i think the only one that may give you what your looking for is the current usa sundial, not sure it does not give a great description. one light that i do use is the aquatic life fixture, built in timer and fans you will be able to set it up for dawn dusk operation and at night moon lights. it is a little more then your budget but maybe you can find it cheaper.

http://www.thatpetplace.com/pet/group/5951/product.web

 

[kellers]

That does look good, thanks! I'll have to look into it more.

 

[chrisd]

no problem, i bought the 36" fixture for my holding tank about 6 months ago and payed $280 it seems the prices have gone up quite a bit. it is nice all in one fixture the only down side is the bulbs are not all the great but thats like any fixture you buy, but in a year or so just buy your self nice bulbs, the other thing is that it does not have individual reflectors but a one piece molded reflector but for what you need it for it will be fine and if you do decide to go with some corals, softies and lps will do great and some sps will be fine as well i would just stay away from any high light demanding sps.

 

[ebross67]

It sounds like there is one power cord that runs the LEDs and moon lights with kill switches for both on the unit. Is this correct? You could always mod the light fixture and add a separate power cord for the moon lights. If you go with a cheap T5HO fixture your going to get lower par and crappy equipment. Not a big deal for a FOWLR, but if you ever decide to show corals it will need to be replaced.

 

[Gayle66]

I have two of the marineland 36" leds on my 40 breeder. I started with one, but the light was barely noticeable. I am really not happy with these units. For the money that I paid for both of them, I could have gotten a fairly decent T5HO unit. Wouldn't do it again.

 

[kellers]

http://cgi.ebay.com/30-T5-Lighting-...462861822?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0#ht_1744wt_913

too good to be true?????

 

[chrisd]

http://cgi.ebay.com/30-T5-Lighting-...462861822?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0#ht_1744wt_913

too good to be true?????

buyer beware..

 

[kellers]

So here's an idea that may be a cost effective semi-diy way of getting what I want. Moonlights aren't crucial, so what if i got two coralife aquatic T5 strips (or something similar) and just swapped bulbs so one fixture was actinics and one was daylights. That way I could put the separate bulbs on separate timers like I want to. I'd have to get another timer, but my total would be about $71 and I'm getting $75 back for my other light so I could even get the extra timer and still break even.