Ligthing delema??? Opinions Please

[The Grizz]

Originally Posted by naesco

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 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.

[The Grizz]

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.

[The Grizz]

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

[lorenz0]

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

[The Grizz]

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.

[shrimpchips]

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.

[lorenz0]

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