newbie question re: lighting

[mojoagogo]

Hi! I'm a newbie w/ a recently-cycled 55 gal tank w/ live rock/sand, a few small fish/anemones. Been trying to do as much online research as possible, but I always end up crashing my pc w/ a gazillion open windows... So I thought I'd cut to the chase & ask the experienced!

Is there any alternative to metal halide lighting for use w/ corals that need bright light? I can't suspend anything over the tank. Also, I'm not completely down wit all the lingo yet, so if you could dumb it down, I'd appreciate it!

 

[dz6t]

other than Metal halide, you only have one solution: t-5

 

[Moe_K]

It all depends on what you want to keep.
I successfully kept some SPS corals, LPS corals, and sofites under 4 VHO bulbs. For the SPS corals, I only got frags from fellow BRS people, and I didn't take/buy anything that would require MH. I kept Acros, Montiporas, Hydnophoras, Pocillipora, etc...

But I wonder if you know that MH lights could be made to sit in a canopy that sits on top of your tank like any other type of lights. Suspending them from the ceiling (or wall) isn't a requirement.

 

[mojoagogo]

I actually can't have a canopy of any significant height on the tank either. I found some info on T5 lights & they look promising, thanks.

Could anybody recommend a place to get good info on the specifics of how much light I might need (watts/lumens/temp/uv/etc)? I know it depends on what I'll have in the tank, but is there some sort of formula somewhere?

 

[Moe_K]

What size tank?

I'd put the max # of bulbs across the top that could fit, and push the max wattage out of them.

As for coloring, that's just personal preference.

 

[denvig]

Your biggest problem is going to be the 55gal itself. Because it’s only 12” front to back and you want a light to sit on the tank the problem you will run into is that the light fixture will take up to whole top of the tank. This will make it very difficult to gain access to the tank for feeding and maintenance etc. Not to mention the problems you are going to have with aquascaping.

 

[merk1_99]

4 t5's with good reflectors ie...icecap or tek will go a long way....I have 6 t5 39 watts over my 55 granted suspended and sps do well under 234 watts but my tank is 25''(i have a custom tank)....If you go 4 bulbs 48'' long thats 54 watts totalling 216...SPS will do well under that since your tank is only 18'' deep. If you are into needing more power you can get ice cap retro's and overdrive them at 80 watts a pc, which would be 320 watts. Just stay away from pure actinic bulbs....they add no useful par for growth....

 

[Beachmont]

T5 vs Powercompacts

I read mojoagogo's message and your replies and I also have a question about lighting. I used to keep a beautifull 28G bowfront with about 110 Watt of powercompact light, one white and one acnitic, after being out of the hobby for a few years (had to sell my tank because I was moving abroad) I am finally starting again ! YEE!!

Anyway, I am currently setting up a 45 Gallon tank, very nice quality tank very well made, but the sizes are odd, it is a panorama tank, and roughly the sizes are 31WX17DX20H, with two slanted corners on the front.

Anyway, I would like as much lighting in there as possible, but also in an easy way, and I also can't really suspend anything or I havr to say, I want the light directly in the aquarium, would like to keep the rest of the room dark(er).

Preferably I would like to build everything in the canopy. in an easy way!

I have been reading about T5, and I can easily fit at least 4 small 24 inch long 24 watt T5 tubes, that would make almost a 100 watt, on a 45G tank. I can also fit 3X 55 watt of PC lights. which gives 165 of PC light.

What is better the T5 or the PC, how do these types compare?
What would be the best/easiest for me according to you guys?

Hope somebody can help!

Thanks!

Rian

 

[NeO]

Hi Rian,

Welcome to BRS....

instead of using 3x 55W PC, I would go with 1x 175 DE MH that will only 10w more then the PC but the light will penetrate dipper into the tank.

Gustavo

 

[Beachmont]

Hi Gustavo,

Thanks for the advice, and your welcome! message!, do you think a Giesemann Nova II Canopy with a 150 DE bulb would be a good option for this 45G tank? Would I need to mount an actnitic bulb of some sort ( T5 or T8 ? ).

Would the 150 watt of the Giesemann be enough for me to be able to keep some Clam's and softies? Or should I get 250 watts? Although I imagine that would be overkill for a 31WX17DX20H 45G tank?

Hope to hear from you!

Best,

Rian

 

[NeO]

I think 175W should be OK for that size tank, I really dont know if with 150W you will be able to keep Clam's but I know that softies will do OK under that.
as far as actinic goes, it is up to you, if you wanna do the Sun simulation or if you like you tank with a little more blue (white) color, actinic is a must.

 

[Jill & Brian]

If you want a decent fixture, check out the 5x54w t-5 fixture from www.aquatinics.com. I have the same fixture over a 72 Bow and I love it. It is only 9.5 inches wide, so it fits well on narrow ended tanks. I wish I had found this fixture when starting out, but instead I dropped a bunch of $ on a pc fixture only to replace it less than a year later.

I was also able to retrofit 3 out of the 5 lights in the fixture with a remote Icecap 660. The Icecap overdrives the bulbs, so it resulted in a significant increase in light inside the tank. It has only been a day, so time will tell on the retrofit.

-Brian

 

[bluesurf1]

Overdrive with ice cap and good reflecters. Works great.

 

[Beachmont]

All sounds good, but I just have the problem of the limited space over my tank, and one of those Giesemann's seems nice and small. I will post a seperate message to see if anybody has any experience with these lights! Thanks again for all the replies!!

Rian