anybody bought anything from this place before?

[pulpol]

am looking to buy a metal halide setup and found this on ebay, they're located in sacramento.
http://stores.ebay.com/Aquarium-Lights

 

[GreshamH]

link is bad. I assume it's Catalina your looking at?

 

[pulpol]

i think the store name is aqua universe

 

[jedininja]

Same thing. Just look up catalina lights and you'll find lots of opinions. I've tried them for a nano a few years back because they did cheap custom work. From my experiences, the enclosures are built solidly enough. The reflector though could use some improvements. The ballast was an Advance ballast, the same ones hellolights use for thier retrofits. So all in all, not bad. Cheaper if you were to get a retrofit from hellolights, but if you need an enclosure, then its not too bad. The only thing is you might as well throw away thier crappy bulbs. So if you find a good deal on MH unit, just remember that you need to add $60 for each MH bulb to the cost.

 

[pulpol]

thanks jedininja

guys can you help me decide which light fixture to get for my 7ft fowlr tank, here are my choices...

A. 72" Current USA SunPod 3x150W 14000K PowerPaq HQI & 24 Lunar Lights $750 w/ shipping & tax
B. 72" Hamilton hood 3x175 watt. 2 - 96W Blue 7100k PC , 2 - 4" cooling fans $750 w/ shipping & tax
C. 60" (Catalina lights)2 X 400 watt mogul base metal halide with 2 X 80 watt T5 HO bulbs $650 w/ shipping ( tax???)
D. 60" (Catalina lights)3 - 250 watt HQI, 2 X 80 watt T5 HO bulbs $765 w/ shipping (tax???)

 

[jedininja]

Well for FOWLR, that changes everything. You really dont need reef lighting and a little bit less light might actually be good for certain fish. For a 7 foot tank, I owuld go with 3 150 bulbs so you get even lighting through the tank. Since you dont need the PAR even 3x150 from catalina would work if they had it.

 

[Elite]

Why do you want to use MH for FOWLR??

 

[sfsuphysics]

SHIMMER LINES!!!!!

hahhaha, actually I find them highly overrated. Me personally I'd swing by Homedepot, pick up maybe 6-48" T8 "daylight" (6500k) bulbs, and use a regular ballast with hookups over the tank for FOWLR... maybe swap a couple out for some actinic bulbs just to blend the colors nicely... eitherway I would NOT spend that kind of coin on any pre-made setup, muchless one for a FOWLR tank!

 

[Qwiv]

I agree with everyone else. Don't get any of those lights. A (2) bulb 6 foot T5 set-up would light up that tank just fine for your fish. It would even support a lot of low light corals.

I wouln't get the regular fixture like sfsuphysics states just because you may want to upgrade some day and you can use the (2) 6 foot T5 bulbs as actinics and the T5 would use less energy. But that is me, and I know I would be upgrading.

 

[pulpol]

thanks guys... forgot to mention that eventually the tank will be housed with corals mostly LPS and softies... and i do love the ripple effects on the water thats why i want a MH setup.

 

[pulpol]

http://www.aquauniverse.com/compone.../category_id,51/option,com_phpshop/Itemid,31/

what about this t-5 setup?

 

[entice59]

id personally get the tek light by sunlight supply if your going t5 because i dont think the link above has the reflectors which takes advantage of the t5 lighting but its going to cost you more but i believe its worth it. you could always get the 4 bulb set up and use 2 bulbs for now and add the other two when you get the lps/softies.

http://www.reefgeek.com/lighting/T5_Fluorescent/Sunlight_Supply/Tek_Light_Fixtures/