Lighting

[DOO-E]

Bob i am one of those people who perfers softies and lps over hard corals. But like they mentioned here start off right it is hard to build around inadiquate planning i know this from experience

[rwdn]

I agree, I'd rather put out the extra few dollars now than have to start all over again in the not too distant future. Can any of you suggest the best place(s) to purchase this lighting (i'm in the Vancouver area), from both a cost and quality point of view?

bob

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by rwdn

Can any of you suggest the best place(s) to purchase this lighting (i'm in the Vancouver area), from both a cost and quality point of view?

bob

If you want new, start at J&L.

[robbyville]

Hey Bob,

J&L does have great prices...and it's always nice to shop locally.

However, if you're in the mood to install the stuff yourself, I purchased my halide system through ebay, a vendor named Bigboyztools who had great feedback and I had an extremely easy experience with.

I purchased a PFO dual halide 250w, mogul sockets, cheap reflector, cords, etc for $185USD. I also purchased my bulbs through this fellow quite cheaply.

There was no wiring necessary but I did have to screw the reflector into the canopy and the sockets into the reflector.

You can also do a full DIY kit at very reasonable prices.

It looks like everyone here has given yougreat advice, the only thing that I would add is to consider 250w so that you won't have to consider upgrading (for now)

HTH

Rob

[JohnM99]

Have you considered T5s? Sunlight Supply makes a very good 36 x 12 inch unit - great light output, excellent for SPS and clams, much cooler and cheaper to run than MH - I have a 6 bulb setup for my flat back hex with 2 shorter bulbs in front - it is actually too bright for many corals - my SPS and clam are thriving - the light is very even - and it is actually hard to find dark enough spots for some like fox corals - for a larger tank a mix of MH and T5 can be great.

You can get them from reefgeek.com - good service there. No one in Canada was selling them when I got mine last year - I spoke to the guy who designed them at Sunlight -in Vancouver, Washington - they were still looking for a Canadian distributor then.

[StirCrazy]

I am going to recomend spending money on the ballast formost and then getting cheaper bulbs to start with. at 36" lenght and a 16" max width you can get away with a DE style but the bulbs can be a little more in cost. what I did and would do again is go with PFO 250 watt HQI ballast and then if say sun aquatics is still in business get there SE 10K bulbs for cheep. (J&L carries them also I think) then from there you have the widest selection of bulbs for upgrading at a later date. I would also throw a couple 96 watt URI super atinic VHO in there powered by a WH7 ballast.

as for mounting the MH you will have to mount them on either end pointing each other because of the width of your tank. this is how I have mine on a 36" x 24" tank and it lights it up quite nice.

Steve

[johnny rock]

while T5 are all the rage they just don't penetrate like MH. If your going to upgrade in the future and if the SPS bug bites[it usually does] then buy right the first time. you can just keep the 400w higher for now off the tank and when you get a bigger deeper tank you can just lower the lamp. pendants are good for thi but it can be done with other reflectors. PFO make an awsome dual ballast setup and its not that exspensive.