Aquarium Light question!

[SleepyPirate]

Iv been doing some heavy looking around for a very well priced 48" light for my salt water tank as I dont have 1000$ to spend and I seen a few fair priced ones has anyone have a good place to find a cheap light thats of high quality.


I looked on ebay and found this
http://cgi.ebay.ca/48-INCH-T5-HO-QUA...item3f0a98bc4c

it seems like its the same bulbs as a coralife light but for a fraction of the price
2 x 54W T5 HO 12000K bulb.
2 x 54W T5 HO Actinic bulb.


If someone could take a look and let me know that would be fantastic looking to get one this weekend

[ScubaSteve]

From what I can see, it doesn't have individual reflectors which tends to give you the best bang for your buck with T5 lighting. It'll do the job but it's no screaming genius. And the bulb quality may be questionable. Sorry to be Debby Downer. I'm usually all for the eBay fixtures but this one isn't jumping out at me as a deal.

You might not have $1K to drop on lighting but do you have $200? If so I'd consider a Sunlight supply T5 fixture. Waaaaay better fixture for a small sum of $$$. You'll probably find you have to replace the bulbs that comes with it for a cost of $100 just to make it decent performing.

You could also consider a fishneedit fixture

[phi delt reefer]

+1 for fishneedit

or wait for a used fixture to come up for sale (check the classifieds here or kijiji locally)

your local lfs may have some trade ins especially with LEDs taking off.

[naesco]

I would recommend you only consider LED. More expensive but you do not have to replace the lights for 5 years instead of the 9 to 12 months with other lighting.

Look at www.fish-street.com

[Magma]

If hes looking on Ebay I dont think he will find to many LED setups worth his time, I took a quick look and most of the LED fixtures on there are MarineLand Double Bright fixtures which seem more for FW than reef setups...

[ScubaSteve]

Originally Posted by naesco

Look at www.fish-street.com

I lost my afternoon because of that link. Damn it...

[naesco]

Originally Posted by ScubaSteve

I lost my afternoon because of that link. Damn it...

Ha ha! I came across that link with my spider search when someone mispelt tank and spelt tang.

Ended up spending a few hours there and bought two Key LED lighting systems. I am really happy with them.

[RuGlu6]

http://www.aquatraders.com/48-716W-M...bo-p/54267.htm
here is a good light if you want to grow SPS corals

[SleepyPirate]

Yea im defidently looking to grow corals and such i only want mabey 6 fish

2 clowns
1 blue tang
1 lawnmore

and mabey a few others i run into, but mainly corals if I can, my currentl flouresent light seems to be keeping what corals I have alive but there is absolutly no growth. Im thinking a metal halide light but it confuses the hell outta me sometimes I see some for $1200 then others like that link above for $300 and i really have a hard time seeing the diffrences.

[lorenz0]

There is more to corals than lighting. a stable tank is more important than blasting the most amount of light that you can possibly muster.

What types of coral are you planning on keeping?