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Last Login: 5/20/2008 8:37:18 PM
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| What would be the best lighting for a 120 gallon tank 24" deep? I want to keep softies and macroalgae. I really won't be able to get a refugium to house the macroalgae if I get this tank because lighting it will be so expensive. I would like some decent quality metal halide lighting that won't be too expensive. Thanks for all your help.
DRRT
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| Is the tank 48x24x24? New or used? Glass or acrylic? Are you looking for a full fixture or individual pendants? If you are not going with any acropora, montipora or other high intensity light needing corals IMO you could go with a 150 watt DE system. If you wanted to you could even bump it up to a 250 watt DE fixture. For a full fixture my choice would be: CurrentUSA OuterOrbit T5 fixture 150 Watt or 250 watt version. There are also nice fixtures by AquaMedic and Giesemann but generally they are a little more money. HTH,
________________________________________________ Keith“I'm hitting the woods just great,
but I'm having a terrible time getting out of them.” - Harry Tofcano
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| I should have also mentioned you could look into T5 fixtures for the tank also if you are just doing softies and macroalgaes. This can save you some money on both the fixture itself and your electric bill. HTH,
________________________________________________ Keith“I'm hitting the woods just great,
but I'm having a terrible time getting out of them.” - Harry Tofcano
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argi (4/8/2008)
Is the tank 48x24x24? New or used? Glass or acrylic?60x24x18. It is used glass aquarium currently housing 2 aquatic turltes. The owner is looking to downsize and I am always up for an upgrade, so we might just trade my 50g. I know I will need a lot more filtration, but I need to figure out lighting costs. It also has two glass shelves 6" from the top that is used for the turtles as a rest spot. argi (4/8/2008)
Are you looking for a full fixture or individual pendants?It doesn't have a hood, and I would have to make one along with a new stand. It has a dual pillar stand, but I parents said they would only let me have one with a cabinet because they want the filtration to be hidden. argi (4/8/2008)
If you are not going with any acropora, montipora or other high intensity light needing corals IMO you could go with a 150 watt DE system. If you wanted to you could even bump it up to a 250 watt DE fixture. I don't want to get something that might limit me if I choose to add a couple frags. But I don't want to spend a small fortune. argi (4/8/2008)
For a full fixture my choice would be: CurrentUSA OuterOrbit T5 fixture 150 Watt or 250 watt version. There are also nice fixtures by AquaMedic and Giesemann but generally they are a little more money. A mixture of lighting wouldn't be bad. I was just under the impression that MH would be needed to reach the bottom of the tank to be effective. Thanks
DRRT
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| I was looking at some of the other lights, what about these? Current USA SunPod PowerPaq The captive sun lighting are on sale, are those any good?
DRRT
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| 60" left to right, 24" front to back and 18" top to bottom? OR 60" left to right, 18" front to back and 24" top to bottom? 60" tanks cause a little bit of difficulty when it comes to metal halide's. It is generally recommended to have one MH per 2' of tank. So a 4' tank will have two MH and a 6' tank will have three MH, but what to do with a 5' tank? You can go with two MH and have the tank a little less lit (darker areas due to the spread of the light) or go with three MH and get full coverage over the whole tank. Have you thought of a budget for the lights (what is the max you are willing to spend)?
________________________________________________ Keith“I'm hitting the woods just great,
but I'm having a terrible time getting out of them.” - Harry Tofcano
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DRRT (4/8/2008)
I was looking at some of the other lights, what about these? Current USA SunPod PowerPaq The captive sun lighting are on sale, are those any good? The SunPod's are good fixtures, they just don't have any supplemental lighting (unless you count the moonlights). Your link wasn't working, so I edited to just show the sunpod page. Was it to a particular fixture or just to the page with all the sunpods? I like to call the Captive Sun fixtures a "house brand" for Marine Depot. They are custom built just for MD customers and MD (no one else carries them). They are good fixtures and you can customize them with different wattage and K rated MH bulbs.
________________________________________________ Keith“I'm hitting the woods just great,
but I'm having a terrible time getting out of them.” - Harry Tofcano
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Last Login: 5/20/2008 8:37:18 PM
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argi (4/8/2008)
60" left to right, 18" front to back and 24" top to bottom? 60" tanks cause a little bit of difficulty when it comes to metal halide's. It is generally recommended to have one MH per 2' of tank. So a 4' tank will have two MH and a 6' tank will have three MH, but what to do with a 5' tank? You can go with two MH and have the tank a little less lit (darker areas due to the spread of the light) or go with three MH and get full coverage over the whole tank. Have you thought of a budget for the lights (what is the max you are willing to spend)? 24" deep. Budget will be based on pricing online and how much it would cost with my discount at work, and how much to build a new stand and hood. I have to make a really tall hood to complement the height of the tank and house the MH safely. Max total, probably about $1500, but like I said, that includes everything like additional filtration since all I have is for my 50 g.
DRRT
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| Lighting will eat into that budget fairly quickly. If you are not going with any clams or corals that need high intensity lighting (especially if they have to be towards the bottom) you can probably use 150 watt DE. If you would prefer to play it safe and have lighting that would be suitable for many different species then I would go with 250 watt DE. CurrentUSA makes a couple of different 150 watt and 250 watt DE fixtures in 60" length. They have their OuterOrbit w/PC, OuterOrbit w/T5 and SunPod. All good choices IMO. If you can budget in for the 250 watt fixtures I think that would be a much better option. You could also look at using individual pendants over the tank. For example you could go with 2 or 3 LumenMax DE pendants, Ballast and bulbs. If you price out 2 of the pendants, a dual 250 watt Sunlight Supply ballast and two 14K Phoenix bulbs it comes out to $814.75. For a little less you can get a 60" SunPod fixture with three 150 watt MH or for a little more you can get the SunPod with three 250 watt MH (just something to think about). All of the above fixtures are meant to go over an open tank. If you are building an enclosed wooden canopy, you might consider going with a retrofit kit. I have used the IceCap/Spiderlight reflector kits in the past and was very happy with them. This is the kit I went with (http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_ViewItem~idProduct~ICSPK53.html). Two of them would run $536 or three would run a little over $800. Then if you wanted to add some supplemental T5 lighting down the road you could probably do that. HTH,
________________________________________________ Keith“I'm hitting the woods just great,
but I'm having a terrible time getting out of them.” - Harry Tofcano
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