Opinions: Lumenarc 3 versus Lumenarc Mini on 30" tank?

[Delphinus]

Want to solicit some opinions here ...

On a 30"x72" tank, I want to go with Lumenarc reflectors for lighting.

But the Lumenarc 3's are 20"x20" which leaves me only 5" on each side for actinic supplementation, which is do-able but really tight, and probably means that I'm limited to 2 T5's at best (when 4 might be better).

The Mini's would allow more room for more T5's (4xT5 would be ideal in my opinion, since the tank is 30" tall).


Thing is, I might kinda already have bought the larger ones. I'm sort of regretting my decision not to go with the mini's. I could always sell the big ones and buy some mini's though, since the tank is a way's off from having water in it, now would be the time to do that.

Anyone have an opinion on which reflector? How much smaller is the light footprint of the mini? The websites say 2.5' which is 30", so I'm sort of thinking now that the mini's might be the better choice.

[wetcoast]

When I was planning for a 225 with 30" depth I was pondering the exact same thing, and went with the Minis, simply for the size, and wanting to put supplementary T5s in the canopy as well. I can't tell you how it worked out as I never got the tank - but did all the calculations and asked around a few times to many people and all got the answer of "it will be more than enough".

[Delphinus]

Thanks! That's sort of affirming what I was starting to think too.

The more I think about it, the more I realize "I should have gone with the mini's." I'm not sure what I was thinking originally. Well, I guess I was thinking that I'd not bother with actinic supplementation, but the problem is now that I've had time to think about it some more, I've changed my mind. I have tanks with actinics and tanks without and I do much prefer the look of actinics added (plus the dawn/dusk effects they give). Argh! (Me==dummy). So... I'm probably going to put up some Lumenarc 3's for sale and see about buying some mini's instead. Whoops! Oh well, time to do it is now, before I'm ready to put water in the tank and be fully committed..

[Chin_Lee]

personally i would go with your original decision of the L3 on a 30wide tank. My rationale for this is the light spread difference on the two. Assuming that the reflectors will be mounted at least 6" above the water and your photosythetic livestock will start around 6" below the water, the light spread on the L3's would be quite even at this point whereas the mini's would still be too focused which will then cause many darker shadows if you have any overhanging rocks or corals.
Your concerns for having only 5" on each side for atinic can be addressed by the method in which you mount the atinics and the height in which you mount the reflectors. Its only 5" of linear space if you mounted them flush with the tank. If they are mounted 6" above the tank, its a 5"x6" space for atinic supp.
I mounted atinic supp to my luminarc minis by attaching an aluminum strip to the ends of the reflectors. Then I mounted the T5 ends onto the aluminum strip. I'll post pics of it later. BTW good luck finidng T5 ends at local hardware stores - i had to special order them in at an electrical trades supplier at $5 each.

[Chin_Lee]

Tony can you clarify if the footprint is 30"w or if the height is 30"? from your initial post, it sounds like its 30" wide but then it sounds like its 30" high. if its 24" wide, i would go with the minis.

[Chin_Lee]

Also Jason should be able to give some good input here - he's got the L3s on his tank and he has seen the minis on other people's tanks.

[Delphinus]

30" deep and 30" tank. (72" long).

I'm just sort of afraid that I'll end up losing part of the actinics by having them blocked by the other reflectors (or vice versa). Since it seems you need about 3" clearance for each t5, and I'm thinking that for a 30" tall tank, I'd want to go with 4 t5's just to be sure that there's enough to make a difference..

My head hurts, I'm putting too much thought into this (That or there's a weather system a-comin').

[wickedfrags]

I had the L3's on a 32" wide tank previously and had no issues fitting the VHO's in. I had 2 actinics at the back and 2 at the front.

[Joe Reefer]

I have mini's on my tank with 1 actinic in front and 1 in the back. However my tank is only 24" front to back. I would stick to the L3's, you should have enough room for two lights on each side, if you go with clip on reflectors the outside reflectors can be angled in towards the middle of the tank.

Here is a couple pictures of my setup.