Pendant Light for Nano Tank

[Brid96]

Any one have any ideas for a pendant light for a Nano Tank. I am building a custom stand for my 3 Gallon Nano tank. It will be drilled to another 3 gallon tank below. I have an open top and am looking for a "clean" setup and want to have a Pendant light for this setup. I found a something from Custom USA, a 55w CF pendant. I would love to go with a Halide but think that anything that I could find would be overkill. 70w halide bulbs are easy to get your hands on but a small fixture for them seems quite a bit more difficult. Not sure if 70W would be to much.

Any help would be great.

Brian

 

[sciknen]

Not a pendant but I just picked up a 70w clip on that very nice. Massive ballast though. But it remote so you can hide it. nd it was only like 130ish

Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk

 

[Brid96]

Hey Sciknen,

Thanks for the information. Was it the black one with the big fan below the bulb? That is the only 70W clip on I have found, and it was massive looking enough to dwarf my already small tank.

Brian

 

[sciknen]

No not it. U have the jbj viper. No fan but it gets pretty hot. You'll want scan of some kind or size pointed at it. I got it on marinedepot and they priced matched drfosters
Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk

 

[KSC]

For that tank a 20k par38 LED would be perfect. Very little heat and only about 20 watts.

 

[Brid96]

Hey KSC. I am hoping to grow hard corals and keep a small clam. I don't know if that light is strong enough or the correct color spectrum, but like I said I don;t know. Have you got any experience growing corals with this light?

Brian

 

[KSC]

Not sure on your tank dimensions but you could definately grow sps and clams somewhere in your tank. You can get different optics depending on the area you need lit.
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1746535&highlight=par38

 

[Brid96]

Hey KSC,

I have been looking into this since your last message. My initial search for a Par38 resulted in some home grade stuff not Aquatic lighting. Just starting to find it now and I am thinking this might be a great solution. Tank is only 10" tall ( x 12" x 8" ish) so I should still have good light penetration into the water. I had always heard that you needed MH lighting to pull of stony's and clams but maybe this will do the trick. I like the amount of light and also the heat load, it will have a negligible impact on the system.

Brian

 

[DoctaQ]

a par38 is actually just a size of bulb, its actually pretty big, used mostly in commercial or outdoors as far as i know, the led par38 was originally made in white by sunpark, then adapted to reef by nanotuners then copied by ecoxotic, boostled, grassyledio, and now rapidled and of course millions of chinese companies. i would go with the nanotuners one with the 80 degree optics for widest spread, youll still have the intensity in the middle of the tank to keep anything you want. if you want to mount the bulb high you can get tighter optics

 

[KSC]

I run the nanotuners 20k par38's in my fuge section of the sump. With the 80 degree optics you get about 8" x 8" coverage with the bulb 12" above the water. Par is about 300 on the surface. If you want more light you just add another bulb as your tank grows out.

 

[Brid96]

Awesome, Thanks KSC and Doctaq,

The 80 degree optics sound about right. That should cover just about all of my tank at 12". Looks like they are out of 12,000k coloring, so I will need to wait for a bit.

Just need to find a fixture now.

Brian

 

[DoctaQ]

the fixture is really the hardest part of using the par38, it needs to be a naked socket for the fins to ventilate

 

[Brid96]

Where the top of the fixture is open? So i should stay away from a "glass bell" style pendant?

 

[DoctaQ]

yes, a regular desk lamp style that is enclosed so you cant see the bulb would generally be bad, it probably wouldnt fit inside anyways

 

[Joey]

I use to have a Nano tank 18x18x18 and the light i had on it was a current usa chrome pendant looks nice and with a 14k bulb your tank would do nice https://www.juliespetmarket.com/images/cu01053_pendant1.jpg

 

[Brid96]

Hey Joey,

I have seen that one. Typically it houses a MH bulb though. Also looks big : p. Is there a version of it that holds a typical screw in bulb?

Brian

 

[Sean Irwin]

A little pricey but might be what you're looking for:
http://shop.aquatouch.com/product_p/ho_led%20neo%20arm.htm

Alternatively, this fixture might work, though I'd still recommend an LED pendant.

http://www.fosterandsmithaquatics.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=22121

 

[DoctaQ]

home depot has like outdoor flood fixtures that would work but might require some woodwork to make it look good

 

[sciknen]

Man I'm considering these on my tank. Just read a bunch about them RC.

Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk

 

[Brid96]

Hey Guys,

Thanks for your input on this, sorry I have been away for a couple days.

I came across a really cool site.

LED Supply

They do all sorts of LED products as well as some custom made kits.

I am getting an LED star made with 3 Luxeon Rebels (2x 6500k white, and one Royal blue) they are capable of 3w at 300 mA and 9W at 800 mA. They also sell the housing for these as well as the buck/drive circuits for them. I will be getting an 800 mA buck driver with an adjustable Pot (for dimming) from zero to 800 mA. it was only another 11 dollars to go from the from the 300 mA system to the 800 mA system, this way if i go bigger later it will not be a problem. The fixture will be capable of 29W but I will keep it running around the 11W mark.

Total cost for the system 3 LEDs mounted, Housing, Lenses, heatsink/enclosure, buck/driver with dimming is $84.00


I have not placed the order yet so if you guys have any feedback on this company or on this selection I would love to hear about it.

Brian