DIY “Shotgun” Lighting

Reef noob_

New member
I'm currently on a long car ride and am passing the time on various forums. While reading a thread about different lighting options I thought back to my own equipment and realized that I actually own all 3 main methods of lighting and now I'm wondering if they can all be used in conjunction in some sort of shotgun approach for success.

My idea is to beef up my current lighting (2X 165w Chinese LEDs) by building a custom fixture and adding some parts from a cheap T5/ MH light that I have had sitting in the garage for >1 year. Here's my quick notes sketch of the plan:

IMG_0154.jpg

I'd build a custom floating rectangle type thing to match my stand with the two LEDs (black) sandwiching a 150W halide (red) with 2 T5s on either side (blue)

Lights are currently pretty unsightly:

f58d96aa151bc0177e560c21b99fa496.jpg


I feel like this would give me the best mix of all the different types of lighting as I transition from a soft coral tank to more SPS focused. Also it could allow me to run only 1 chord into the fixture ( I have a Reefkeeper that I'd use a strip to power all this)

Does anyone have experience doing this? Especially taking apart light fixtures for parts. Also any ideas on how to improve this design?


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I like the idea of adding the T-5's. I would personally omit the halides. Too expensive to run/maintain. Maybe add 4 T-5's instead? Good luck!
 
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