Ligthing delema??? Opinions Please
 

So I have decided that I am going to bite the bullet an buy new light's for the new tank. But I don't know what to go with.

Reminder of the tank: 96"L x 22"W x 18"D

Here are the option's that I am looking at:

2 of these
http://www.reefshops.com/sunsun-hld-...ight-fans.html

or 2 of these
http://www.reefshops.com/odyssea-48-...d-and-fan.html

or ? of these
http://www.jlaquatics.com/product/sl...C+8+x+54W.html

any input would be great on these or other option's.

I picked up a 6 bulk of the Sunlight Supply Tek light from Carmen for the 65 i bought off you.. I love it. great sleek look over the tank. fantastic fixture altogether. would absolutely vote for the tek.

I like them to but have to make sure it is enough light for all the coral & anemones I have, don't want to lose any in the move over. Your tank is looking good BTW.

if you're worried about light intensity have a look at some of Doug's photos.. he's got the same fixture. thats what sold it for me. if he can keep THAT tank with a tek, i dont know what else i'd ever need.

Plus, your tank is only 18" deep..

PERSONALLY, I love the color of the T5's and the array of choices there are in colors and such. Much preferred the Tek to my MH. Also less heat to worry about. And with only 18" depth I think you would be happy with T5's...

and mine is just the six bulb:wink:.....go with the eight and the skys the limit...

i completly agree with carmen on this one greg. go with the t5's we talked about the other night.

Good point but I wonder how many bulbs per side.

You think that 2 48" 8 bulb fixture's would do it Doug

thats 864watts greg im sure you could come up with some wicked combo on the bulbs

ya I would probably go with 2 actinic, 2 10000K, 2 14000K and 2 of something else each side. Then my 2 set's of 10 moon lights one each side.

Anyone know where I can get a killer deal on the fixture's, lol.

What are you using for bulb combos Doug?

Absolutely...

greg you have a pm

the real deciding factor is $$$ I can get 2 of these:

http://www.reefshops.com/sunsun-hld-...ight-fans.html

for the price of 1 tek 8 bulb and I also get that cool shimmer and only be down 24 watts. SO MANY OPTIONS AUGH:frusty:

I'm a pendant person. I used to have a combo fixture with MH and T5 but I've decided that I dont really like them. The reflectors are always small so they dont offer the same quality of spread like a good pendant does. Also if you decide to upgrade or downgrade to a tank with different dimensions you may find that the combo fixture is then too short or two long. Whereas with pendants you can just add or subtract more pendants. Just my two cents.

Dont want to go pendent for the simple reason that the light will flood my living room and make it to bright. Plus the way I have planed my build there is going to be an oak canopy above tank. But thanks for the input.

If you have a canopy, how will pendents flood the room with light? :lol:

Go With the tek thats the light i am going with....MMAX has that 8bulb tek he showed it to me and man are they sweet. lots of light.

I agree. Even if you did NOT have a canopy, a well designed pendant like a Lumenmax or Lumenarc won't flood the room with anymore light than any other type of lighting set up.

I guess I should of been more clear. The pendents would be to tall as I need to keep the canopy a max of 14" tall above the tank.

Hey Greg,

Just to let you know, I'm running 3 pendants inside my canopy and my canopy is only 11 1/4" tall (This is including overlapping the front glass down about 1 1/2" so that you don't see the water line. So pendants are very do-able while keeping the canopy "short"

The bottom of my lumenmax 3's are 7" above the surface of the water in my tank. The highest point on the pendants (the hanging rings) are 13" from the surface of the water. If I measure from the top rim of the tank the rings are 11-1/2". I dont know about lumenarc and lumenbright but lumenmax would certainly fit in your canopy.

WELL COOL!! even more options.

Dez & whatcaneyedo how long & deep is your tank? What wattage are your pendents? Any pic of your tank Dez.

I would LOVE to have MH on the tank because i like the shimmer and then I can supliment with a couple smaller T5 HO fixtures.

4' long and 2' deep. Its a standard 120gal. 250W DE pendants.

Greg,

Here is a page of my tank build with pictures:

http://canreef.com/vbulletin/showthr...=50842&page=45

I have a 5 x 2 x 2 tank and I run PFO pendants (250 watts). However, if you read my build, I started with 150 watts in the middle and I have an acro that grew like crazy sitting on the sandbed under the 150 watts. The only reason I went to 250 watts is because I got a matching pendant from a friend so that all 3 pendants were the same. I run T5's for supplemental and for viewing when the halides aren't on.

If you have time, read my whole tank build for details on my lighting and canopy. Hope this helps.

This was my canopy (unfinished at time of pic) on my 75G tank (48Lx18Wx20T).. Lumenmax3's about 6" above the water... Canopy is 12" tall... So it can definitely be done. 14" would give you a few more inches to raise them above the water..

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...ank/lights.jpg

so from what I have seen and heard I should have 4 - 150w pendent's on my 8' tank.

Grizz if I were you I would not spend any money upgrading your lighting until times get much better, than go for LED.
Swap a guy who knows all about DIY LED lighting to do it for you for some welding you can do for him.
Wayne

That what I have been noticing from the light fixture manufacturers. The MH are set up so every bulb would light 2' of tank lenght. So 4 would be a good choice.

That would be cool but don't know much about the LED lighting or anyone who builds it. I already have one of my tanks sold & if I can get 2 or 3 stands to build that would pay for the light's on the new tank.

I think I have made my choice on light's. Going with 4 - 150W DE pendent's with 20,000K bulbs and 4 set's of T5 HO 54W retro kits with 4 actinics at least but not sure what else.

Maybe....... I so need to make a decision.

with that deep of a tank you will regret spending the money on 150's. go T5's or 250's

Did a little more research today and feel that I might be happier with 2 - 48" 8 bulb T5's. Might see if I can find 4 - 4 bulb fixtures with 2 switches per 2 bulbs.

Go with 2x 6 bulb fixtures - your tank is only 22" front to back, and only 18" deep. With a 6 bulb fixture, with the smallest reflectors, you're directly covering 12" (roughly 2" per bulb with reflectors), and at a depth of 18" you'll get pretty good coverage.

If you keep the rock work off the back pane of the tank, and assume a clearance of at least 6" from the front pane to the front of your rock work, you only really need to directly light an area less than 16" wide, which at a distance below the 12 inches of width of the fixture, should be easy to directly cover.

That, and you'll have less bulbs to buy each time and less fixtures to deal with.

Edit: If you go with something like a TEK light, where I believe the reflectors are 2.5" wide, you'd be getting a 15" front to back covered. Pretty much your whole rockwork will be covered directly by the fixture, which will be sufficient for most (if not all) SPS (with careful placement), and you can do the LPS and others lower down.

well put. Your tank is only 2" deeper than mine and i am running a 6 bulb TEK