Advise please on lights.
 

Advise please on lights.

Ok so I have a 90g bow front it’s only 13”wide at each end
and gets to be about 17” at the middle of the bow front in the front.

And after looking at the lights on j&L aquatics, I found some I like to only find that the dimensions are too wide at 15”

(Does anyone have these lights, do the legs base at the end, or in the middle so it will fit on my 13”wide tank?)

http://www.jlaquatics.com/product/mh...+2+x+150W.html
http://www.jlaquatics.com/product/gi...+4x54W+T5.html
These are interesting
http://www.jlaquatics.com/product/pf...g+Fixture.html

or should I just buy two 250clamp lights and hang on one each side of the tank? (I know the link is for 150w)
http://www.jlaquatics.com/product/MH...+1+x+150W.html

what should I do? right now I have a 48” cp coralight 4x 65W fixture only 7”wide, and the legs fit on the end which make it about 8”wide so it fits on the 90g great.

But turning my tank into a reef one and I know I need more Watts.

I’m curious, what would you guys do???
Suggestions would greatly be appreciated.
Or feel free to share which lights you use, I’m curious as in what is more popular.

judging by your choices i take it your looking at getting into SPS right??

take a look into tek fixtures as well. the results of T5HO are impressive with the right bulb choices. how long is your 90gal? and how deep?

48'L and 28' H

Feet eh?... That's a big tank.. :wink:

haha opps - i wish it was that big! :mrgreen:

I would agree, check out the tek T5 HO units. I'm running the 48 inch 4 bulb one on my 125ish gallon tank and all my corals have done well with good coloring and growth. I've got many sps in there as well (some easy ones some hard), and have had no problems (running them for over 2 years). The best part about the T5s is the fact that they don't heat up the tank in the summer (also they are cheaper to buy, and bulb replacement is a lot cheaper with many bulbs to choose from).

how many watts are cheap bulb?
i know someone with a t5 each 54w. so my cp are strong then those.

Chuck that whole watt per gal theory out the window. lol best thing i learned about lighting. it all depends on the output of the light. even though PC might put out more watts its still not giving off the proper light for certain coral (SPS mostly). than when you add reflectors into it your increasing the light. I have a 130watt PC on my 20H and a 108watt T5OH on my 10gal and the difference is insane. the T5's put out way better lighting.


T5's have won the battle with me when it comes to lighting. the two things that sold me on T5's were the heating issue and shadowing with MH lighting. Once i get my larger tank up and running i am looking forward to comparing my roomate MH/t5 set up to my T5OH set up.

here are the two fixtures i would reccomend:

http://www.current-usa.com/nova_extreme_pro

http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_ViewIt...ILTFIT58U.html

the tek fixture doesn't come with bulbs but from what i heard they have better reflectors but you need to buy the bulbs. the one plus side to the NEP is the fact you don't need to buy bulbs right away and is a bit cheaper on the wallet. I am happy with my NEP but the 20" lighting is a whole different story since there isn't any bulb support for it besides what current has to offer.

to be honest look at peoples tanks that have the lighting your looking at and see how it is effecting the coral. here are 2 thread on RC that i watch:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...hreadid=421647

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...5&pagenumber=1

so are there any lighting guru's here? i need help with lights to haha. i just bought t5ho 8 bulb 48 inch set up for a 90 gallon tank and was wondering what a good bulb configuration yet iu olny have 2 bulbs so far just a fiji purple and a midday

haha.. See, I prefer the shimmer of the MH on the water... More natural looking to the ocean. :mrgreen:

The bulb I've really been liking is KZ's New Generation (14.4k), so I'd say get one of those. As well having a KZ Coral light 10K would look good. You already have a KZ Fuji Purple which will compliment the other bulbs. I would say getting a Ati blue +, or a Ati actinic blue if you can not find the blue + in the mix would be good (does not have to be ATI brand).
I've been running a 4 bulb 48 inch tek unit in my 125ish gallon tank with the following config and am liking the overall lighting look and growth in the tank (after trying may different bulb configs).

Front bulb- ATI Superbrite (similar to the GE 6500K)
Front middle- ATI Blue +
Back middle- KZ Fuji Purple
Back bulb- KZ New Generation

As I have it the middle bulbs turn on a 1/2 a hour earlier and later then the front and back ones. So with a similar ratio in your eight bulb unit I think you will be more then happy with the results

My experience was that the T5 lights that I had did not grow my SPS corals at all. I don't know why, I just know that as soon as I switched to MH I got massive growth from the SPS that I had at the time.

I have the 72 gal. bowfront.....48"X28" deep.......I run the Aquatinics Constellation which is a T5 7 bulb configuration and love the light. It sounds like your tank is approx. 2" wider then mine....check the light out online.

Here is a link to look at the light itself.
https://diyreef.authsecure.com/shop/...b57d9a7a9a94f2

I started with t5s and zero sps growth. I then went to 150mh and i started to get a little growth. After that i was hooked on sps and i went 250 mh .I guess it just depends on what ou wanr to grow with your lights

I am running T5 TEK lights and its more then enogh light for SPS.
I have good color (pinks ,greens especially) and good growth
The key thing for T5 is good Reflector, if you get cheep reflectors you will NOT get SPS growth.
Tek light has a "W" or seagul wing shaped German made reflector, this is the one you want if you considering T5 HO lights.
http://www.jlaquatics.com/product/sl...C+6+x+54W.html
If you decide to go with MH go with 250W DE because 150 or 175 will not be enough for tall tank.
DE is smaller fixtures compare to Mogul based, also keep in mind heat issues...if your tank is in cold basement you'll be ok but if its not T5 will be your choice or get ready to buy a chiller+ hydro to run the chiller.

I have had a T5 8-bulb Tek light on a 120 for several years.

I get tons of growth on easy SPS (Monti cap taking over 1/2 the tank, Montipora digitata growing like crazy), the Montipora confusa is growing moderately, however a Horn coral has not grown at all. I haven't tried any other SPS. However there may be other factors hindering growth like flow, feeding etc.

I haven't changed my T5 bulbs in 3 years or so, I guess I should.

I read that an actively cooled T5 fixture (like the ATI power module fixture) will give much better light output than a Tek fixture. I don't know if this is true or hype. I believe that the amazing European T5 tanks you see on RC are running this sort of fixture.

FYI the T5 light in the link you provided is the exact same T5 light that I had that I could not get SPS to grow for me.