Lighting 180G (72x24x24)

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

If yours is an Aqualight Pro, then you have 4 x 96w PC actinics (not 65w). Just for future reference.

If you go with Phoenix (good, inexpensive) or Aquaconnects (same colour, more expensive) 14,000k, you won't need to use your actinics at the same time anyways. You can have the actinics on for the "dawn & dusk" effect - turning them on before & after the MH are on to help transition the lighting in the tank from dark, to actinic, to bright, back to actinic & dark again.

[ALang]

Great! Then I maybe able to extend my Actinic's life for a bit longer. Anything to save a few more pennies for those "GOTTAHAVEIT" DAYS.

[Myka]

Oh here I am suggesting T5 bulbs for actinics. *slaps forehead* You don't have nearly the amount of choice with the PCs. I agree that the Phoenix look great on their own, so you wouldn't need to run the PCs all day, just the dusk/dawn. Fwiw, your tank should get 12 hours of light a day, with 6-8 of those being high intensity, so you can run your halides for 6-8 hours, and then the PCs before and after to make up the 12 hours, with say a 15 minute overlap to make up for halide warm up. Does that make any sense? Maybe not...ok something like this:

8:00 PCs on
11:00 halides on
11:15 PCs off
16:45 PCs on
17:00 halides off
20:00 PCs off

That way you will save bulb life, and electricity.

[ALang]

Gee thanks for really spelling it out for me. Sometimes it is easy to assume a newbie may know what you are talking about. I will be doing that when I do my light changes.

[Coleus]

Originally Posted by Marmot74

I was looking at the all in one types (MH, T5, Moonlight) like Hamilton Belize Sun. Do they suck?

I think GlobalDesign has one and he is loving it. I got a chance to take a look at the light and I got to say it is very nice too. However, he was using 10K bulb at the time so i did not light the color much but the fixture itself is very solid build.

Unfortunately, if you want this fixture you are in a very long waiting list because they seems out of stock all the time.

I have been waited for over 2 months and now still waiting. If i have known this, I would have bought the maristar from Bulkreefsupply when they are 10% off on remember day. It is just Brutal if you are looking for 6 feet fixture.

I don't think you can go wrong with either one. If you look at build thread, Kien is using maristar for his reef tank.

Good luck