Lighting for 72 gallon Bowfront/20 gallon sump

[Whatigot]

Hello aquarists, thank you for opening my thread.
I have recently bought a 72 gallon bowfront and 20 gallon tall sump and it only came with a single 48" fluorescent light for freshwater.
I am planning a reef, lightly stocked as think minimalism in tanks is very desireable and would like the option to keep any coral and fish, or at least to not be limited by the lighting in my choice.

I'm not looking to spend ridiculous amounts of money on lighting, I will be buying used as well to save a little cash.
I am considering a 4x65w compact fluorescents or 2 150w-250w MH pendants.
I have used CF's in the past and like them due to their simplicity and price range but I cannot ignore the praise I've read of MH.

Looking for suggestions please, I know you've got them

[sharuq1]

Personally, for a 72g I would recommend going with a Tek fixture. You can keep pretty much anything you want and you don't get the heat issues that you do with mH. Also you can tweak the color to be as purple, blue or white as you want using different bulb combos. If I was converting my 72 that is what I would put on it, and save the mH's for a bigger and deeper tank.

If you go with mH, 2 x150w would do, but you may find you have heat issues. Pendants that I thought were nice were the lumenmax, lumenarc, lumenbright (all lumen pendants tend to be rather large as a warning) and the reef optix III.

[dsaundry]

I have a 72g bowfront with 2x250mh and 4-65w pc. My house is air conditioned and I do use fans in addition but even though growth is very good so far, if I had to do it again I think I would use a nice T5 assembly.
I still may switch my mh over to my 90g and put a T5 unit I recently ordered on my 72g. Hope this helps..As for used equipment, check out the usuals, Buy+Sell..Craigslist..Ebay..

[BC564]

I have a 72 gal bowfront and put the Aquactinics Constellation Series 7 row T5's in.

here is the link for a pic

http://www.aquactinics.com/pages/72-Constellation.html

I really like this light...has 3 seperate plugs and switches so you can control it.

[Whatigot]

I have to reiterate that cost is a factor for me.
I am very much the consumate consumer and if I don't get a good deal; I don't buy it.

Man that VHO system is nice, pretty comparable per watt to dollar to the MH though isn't it?
what's the advantage outside of colour customization and heat?


You use 260 watts of cf AND 500 watts of MH light for your 72 bow?

[Whatigot]

also, why does noone like compact fluorescents?
is it mainly because they are too cost effective to be respectable?
seems like they don't come highly reccomended but I haven't found anything wrong with them in my research or experience?

[BC564]

The biggest one is its easy to remove to get into the tank.....has its own legs it sits on. I can wipe it down any time i want....since heat isnt an issue......I'm talking about the safety glass.

[mseepman]

The biggest reason you don't see support for CF lights is that they do not have good PAR for corals. Essentially, they don't give enough light to properly feed many of the corals that people in this hobby like to have. They are mostly used for color supplimentation because of that reason. ie: Actinic CF beside MH lights.

Originally Posted by Whatigot

also, why does noone like compact fluorescents?
is it mainly because they are too cost effective to be respectable?
seems like they don't come highly reccomended but I haven't found anything wrong with them in my research or experience?

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Power Compact bulbs do not give you very good colour IME & have to be replaced much sooner than MH for a reef tank. PC fine for Fowlrs but I would not use it for reef tanks, unless going with softies & lower light lps. Even then, because they need to be changed more frequently since they dim out & change colour to more yellow, it would not be as cost effective as you seem to think. Countless reefers started with PC lighting & have had to upgrade to MH to not be light limited in their choice of corals. I know that happened to me, but that was before I discovered Canreef.

Anthony

[BC564]

I only use that Aquactinics Constellation on my 72 bow. With the T5 VHO