92 corner lighting upgrades

putman201

New member
alright so i have a 175 watt mh and 4 65 watt powercompacts over my 92 corner. I am thinking of upgrading to a 250 watt mh, and switching the powercompacts for t5 lighting. I am curious as to where i can find 36inch t5 retros, and which ones would be the ebst to go for. I keep softies, lps, clams, and sps right now and was wondering if going with the 250 and t5's might be overkill. I'm still not sure how many t5s i should go with either. All i know is i got the nova extreme t5 fixture with 4 24 watt t5's and its much brighter then my old csl 2X65 watt pc fixture for my 25 gallon tank so i'm thinking of changing the lights out on my 92. Perhaps just changing the power compacts to t5's would give me enough of a boost that i dont need to change the mh? i'm getting great growth with the t5's on the 25, but i can't live without the sparkle and pop from mh. Any suggestions?
 
I have a 54 corner Im working on, and Im using a 250 HQI pendant and 2x75w vho actinics over the tank. I bought a second ballast and bulbs etc for 2x75w 10k's as well, but I dont think Im going to need them.

The best corner setup I've seen was 2x250 mh hamilton hqi's and 2x75w vho's that the individual was using strictly for a dusk dawn effect.

I got all my stuff from hellolights and I am very satisfied. They had everything I needed at reasonable prices. They have t5 too but I havent actually visited that section :p
 
I've got the aquactinics fixture over my 54gallon corner... 250w mh with 2 24watt t5 actinics, it works great for me.

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do you have a chiller on your tank? like what is your ambient air temp and what kind of cooling do you have on your tank, and the max temp it reaches with that light?
 
no chiller, air temp is usually around 70%, up to mid 80's in summer...

I have a fan installed which turns on if water gets too warm, and put in a box to route outside air into the light unit...

all in all, when in fall/winter/spring my temp stays between 77.9 and 78.2, and my hood fan never turns on...

in summer it raises up to 81 on a hot day and my fan comes on...

This box really doens't seem to add all that much heat to my system.

in fact, frequently, when the air temp is 70, the tank heaters come on during the day.

input air box channels fresh air from a large hole in top of hood to intake on light unit.
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hood fan, controlled by my reefkeeper unit, only comes on when tank temp reaches 79

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over all I like the light system, I will admit however that it is the only one I've ever owned, so can't compare it to other systems
 
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