48'' Lighting? Suggestions?

UWUALineman

New member
Now that I am post whoring in the CORA forum, I will ask a more serious reefing question. I am wanting to purchase a light that will serve its purpose now, and as well as when I add more inverts to my tank. I am wanting to get a light that pushes around 400 watts (correct me if this is not a suitable wattage) right now and be done with it. I do not want to dump 500+ into just a light Not going to happen. I want this light to be capable of simulating a 24 hr cycle with a few moonlight LED's. I have searched a few sites, and most have one but not the other, or the canopy is a bit underpowered for what I feel I need. Can anyone point me in the right direction or give me advice that could send me in the right direction of the right setup for me. I am wanting to find used but have seen the forums are running a little low on 48'' lighting.

I am wanting to have a Clean up crew, an anemone, pair of clowns, and MAYBE (emphasize the maybe) a small blue tang.
I have a 48'' 75G tank.
 
I know when I had my 90 gallon tank I used a light that I got from aqua traders ....

it had two MH lights that were 250 watts, moon lights that were leds, and compact florescent atinics. For the price that I paid for it, it worked, I believe it was around 300 dollars. There is a huge long thread about this light..... I know people say it will catch fire and it is cheaply made. I owned one for about a year and it worked great.


I did make some mods to the light itself. I replaced all the bulbs. And changed the MH Ballasts. Replaced the fans as well. I know for a fact I had less than 500 dollars in the light.

When it came time to setup my 125 I went ahead and sold my aquatraders light and got three 250 watt MH lights and pendants and hung above my tank with the help of Ken.

I am in no way saying the aqua traders light is the best light but it is a coralife knock off light, and does work if you do not want to pay a ton for a light.

I know you can get used ballasts and pendants for cheap but then you said you want to have the moon lights and atinics. SO this is why I was saying check them out.
 
i would recommend going with T5s. look for a used aquactinics TX5 or a Tek T5 fixture. you will have to add your own moon lights, but that will cost about $20.
 
Do you need it to fit within/under a canopy, do you want the fixture to sit on top of the tank (on the bracing, most likely), or are you ok with a hanging fixture? Also, deciding whether you want MH or not will be another limiting/narrowing down factor.
 
I used 175s and 250s on my old 75. perfered the 250s. Just standard ballest from Auer hardware. Some 250W Reeflux bulbs and a cpl reflectors, I was very happy.
 
Sorry I left that information out. I need and want the light to sit on top of the tank. I am currently in an apartment and I prefer the look over a hanging fixture. Is metal halide that important in a 24'' tank? If I even choose to have coral it won't be much and if I need halides for them I probably won't. I want to keep my bio-load down because I do not want to build a sump due to lack of space. Was it a complete DIY jh2pizza?
 
Anemones are light demanding creatures, depending on the type you want (some require more than others). Even though it's just one critter, you need to provide the proper enviroment. I have preffered halides with t5 suplimentation. 250's vs 175 cause there is more bulb selection along with less limitations on types of coral anemones ect. due to light output. Thus less need to upgrade down the road.
 
i've got the nova extreme pro with 6-t5 bulbs. it comes with legs so you can stand it about 3-5 inches above the tank. my wife hated that cause the light was blinding if you were blow the light, so it also came with 4 rubber knobs that had adhesive on one side. i found out they are so you can rest the light right on the top of the tank. we have no light coming out into the room now and the coral love the light. we also have an anemone and a clam that seem to be thriving as well, but we haven't had them for quite as long.
 
I have 4 T5s on my tank on a single GE ballast. I did a DIY, with individual icecap reflectors, and just made structure out of 3/4" PVC to hook the endcaps to. I can keep just about anything in the tank. I keep high light sps as low as halfway down the tank, and low light corals have to be shaded even on the bottom. I've had more than one chalice bleach on me until I put them in caves. However I do not keep any anenomes. Before the T5s I had VHO's and I kept a neon green carpet anenome that really thrived until his host saddle clowns beat the crap out of him. I know the T5s are much brighter, I would think as long as you stick with something like a BTA or Haddoni you would be fine with T5s
 
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There is a large thread about that light in the lighting forum but basically it comes down to this. It is considered an entry level light by most of the folks on there but some people on that thread can be pretty snobby about equipment. Grim reefer tested it and found it to be pretty close to a Tec light from Sunlight Supply but not quite there. It doesnt have individual reflectors per say but has one big reflector that has been shaped to mimic the individual ones. The folks that have them seem very happy with them especially for the money they paid but most change out the factory bulbs pretty quickly. For a 75 gallon tank I dont see that light being a problem at all. I was considering this light myself but decided it wasnt enough for my tall tank.
 
that is the light i was talking about earlier in the thread. i've got an anemone that is doing very well and some acro that has more than doubled in size in less than 7 months.
 
Check out this thread:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1529404

For the 4 light 48" fixture, they quoted $16 shipping to central Ohio. Total was $171.
http://www.hellolights.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=1717

The 8 light model was out of stock.

http://www.hellolights.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWCATS&Category=25
This link shows the price on the 4 bulb 48" model at $125. If you call them, they may honor that price. When you click through to the page it says $154 instead.
 
Thanks fellas, I reckon I will keep on searchng. Its hard to tell by just looking online to actually see the brightness and intensity of these lights in action. I had a chance to visit a co-workers home who has a setup with a believe CF's and two metal halides. The halides made the tank come to life. Was very impressed. I am not trying to sound helpless: at least doesn't come across that way, but I am kind of relying on a general consensus of opinions to make my final judgement. About the only place I have close is We Love Pets in Z'ville, and that store is next to nothing. Thanks for all the help and please keep the opinions/suggestions coming.

marinefishguy: I tried a week or two ago to get the 8 bulb fixture and it was out of stock then. Good lookin' out on trying to hook a fella up.
 
There is a fish store in Hebron that has decent prices on fish. IT is called RJ's it is right across the road from the speedway. His corals are way overpriced IMO.

This is where i have gotten all most all of my fish except my yellow tang. I purchesed a power brown tang there for 32 dollars. He usually has his yellow tangs for around that price as well.
 
he doesn't have a whole lot of equipment he mostly has tanks and a few smaller items. I guess that i should of mentioned this before. The best way to get items is to get it here or online stores that gets you the best bang for the buck.
 
The key to T5's is that they should have individual reflectors to get the best light out put. The first link doesn't. The first one is hard to tell if your interested in this light i would just email them and ask if it had individual reflectors.
 
Thanks for all of the help New2. I am currently searching Sunlight Supply Tek5 8x54's right now. I want to do this once and do this right.

Name is Josh here. Everyones help is appreciated.
 
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