75g Lighting Options

[greenmonkey51]

I can't figure out what to do for lighting on my 75g. I thought about doing dual 250wt halides, but then I was told that I couldn't do mushrooms and polyps because the lighting would be to much. I don't want to do SPS and only a few LPS at most. I mainly want to do softies, shrooms, and polyps. What would be a good lighting setup for this. I was thinking about a 250wt MH in the middle with either 110wts of PC or T5. Would this be enough for what I want. Would the middle brace block to much of the metal halide light.

 

[petoonia]

I would go with a T5 fixture. I have the Aquatinics Solar Flare fixture on my 75G, and it's great.

http://www.aquariumspecialty.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=28_111_112

 

[DouglasTiede]

I have polyps that have grown and flurished under halides, the shrooms I keep off to the side under an overhang.

I once read that a reefer had put gutter gard over a portion of the tank to make a shade spot for the delicates..
Perhaps this could be an option for you?

 

[greenmonkey51]

Can some one give me a quick explanation why T5's are better than PC.

 

[petoonia]

I dont know the exact reason, but I can tell you from personal experience I have T5 on one tank, and PC on the other. It is a huge differnce. Also with T5's you can get diffferent bulb combinations. Here's a good thread on T5 lighting.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1070612

 

[sixspeed]

I dont mean to hijack this thread, but Petoonia, with that fixture you have for the T5's do you have it raised above the water or do they not put off enough heat to raise the tank temp?

 

[petoonia]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9713741#post9713741 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by sixspeed
I dont mean to hijack this thread, but Petoonia, with that fixture you have for the T5's do you have it raised above the water or do they not put off enough heat to raise the tank temp?

Right now we have it sitting right on top the tank. We are waiting for the legs to come out, they weren't available when we bought the fixture. The light does get somewhat hot, at most it raises the tanks temp about 2 or 3 degrees. We also have to keep the glass hood on the tank to keep moisture off of the light. I think once we get the legs and take the glass off of the top there wont be any problems with heat at all. If possible I would suggest hanging it from the ceiling, it is a bit of a pain to take the light off every time we have to go into the tank. Otherwise it is a great fixture.

 

[greenmonkey51]

Are the Tek T-5 retrofits as good as the hoods and everything else. I'm thinking of going with those. What couldn't I do if I went with 4x54wt Tek T-5

 

[Icefire]

4x54w t5 will be enought for all.

 

[greenmonkey51]

Would 2x175 MH be better for my situation. Could I do a couple SPS's towards the top and still do shrooms and softies towards the bottom.

 

[Icefire]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9714412#post9714412 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by greenmonkey51
Would 2x175 MH be better for my situation. Could I do a couple SPS's towards the top and still do shrooms and softies towards the bottom.

4x54w would be best, less watts, les bulb cost etc.

 

[psimitry]

With the exception of the "halide shimmer" that we know and love, I am of the opinion that (at the moment) T5HO lighting is the perfect reef setup. I am currently keeping literally everything (SPS, LPS, Zoas, Mushrooms) under a 4x54 watt retrofit and everything is doing really well.

The main thing to keep in mind before going with a T5 setup is the reflectors. They need to be individual (one reflector per bulb) and they need to be as reflective as possible (preferably a mirror finish). Unless you have good reflectors behind each bulb, T5HO might as well be a power compact setup.

As far as keeping the lower light corals under them, bear in mind that the extreme ends of the bulbs will be less intense. Knowing that can work to your advantage. For example, all of my SPS (and my large xenia colony) are dead center of the tank. LPS are off center, mushrooms are on the extreme ends. Everything seems to be really happy.

 

[greenmonkey51]

I'm looking at the Tek T-5 retrofit since I've heard so much about them. That should be good for what I'm looking at now.

 

[psimitry]

I have the Tek retrofit kit. A buddy of mine has the Icecap retrofit kit.

Knowing that, I prefer the Icecap reflectors over the Tek reflectors. However, I do prefer the Sunlight Supply (Tek) ballasts because the Icecaps tend to run the bulbs a bit bluer than normal due to overdriving.

As far as bulb choice, I highly recommend ATI/UVL bulbs. I have a set of them now and prefer them over the Geismann bulbs I had until recently. Currently, I run ATI bulbs in the form of Blue Plus and Daylight spectrums, and UVL for the 12,000K and Actinic spectrums. At first it was a little too blue for my taste, but now that the bulbs have worn in it looks much better.

 

[greenmonkey51]

Would shrooms and polyps be ok under 2x54w T-5's. I also found a way to do Ice Cap reflectors and Tek ballasts for a decent price.

 

[SaltyDr]

Shrooms and zoas would do OK with 2x54w T5. Shrooms can almost grow in the dark!

 

[Potsy]

The reasons that t5 are better than pc are higher quality phosphors in the tube, more efficient conversion of watts to light intensity (pc work optimally when they're cooled to 70 degrees - that's not gonna happen), and ability to utilize individual reflectors. I have 220 watts of pc over a 20 gallon and 195 watts of t5 over a 38 gallon. The t5 visually blows away the pc fixture with regard to color and intensity.

 

[ServantSoldier]

I have zoas and mushrooms growing like aptasia in my 30g fitted with 250 mh!

 

[snslarison]

I have 2x175W Halide over my 75. I keep a little of everything.

 

[OneDayMatt]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10335176#post10335176 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by SaltyDr
Shrooms and zoas would do OK with 2x54w T5. Shrooms can almost grow in the dark!

Not just Almost! I had an aquarium with a terrible algae problem. I moved all of my livestock to a new tank and then, since I didn't have time to immediately clean the tank, I covered it with towels (to block the sunlight) and kept the light off to let some of the algae die off and discourage additional growth while I went out of town. I finally got around to cleaning the tank and there were 3 nice 1cm brown mushrooms happily living away that I had missed in a totally non-heated dark as night tank.