First Reef tank, lighting advice?

[jallen18]

Hi there, I've been a freshwater enthusiast for many years, and I'm finally at the point where I can start piecing together an affordable Reef tank.

I've got the Tank and stand ordered as of yesterday, a 75 gallon Perfecto Reef Ready with stand. (paid $219 and $179 respectively, good deal?)

My question is on lighting, my LFS owner recommended T5 lighting over compact flourescants, as he said the CF's will be obsolete in 6 months. I've checked around and found what look to be pretty good deals, here's one:

http://www.marineandreef.com/shoppro/power_novaXtreme.htm

the 48" model was listed at $199 including the bulbs.

I liked this idea, because it would allow me to purchase one fixture now, then possibly add another fixture in the future, assuming thats ideal to do? (they measure 7.25" front to back) for 8 total bulbs.

I just wanted to toss this out here, I see a lot of very helpful people on these forums, and have read a lot of great advice!

 

[Entropy]

[welcome]

CF's will not be obsolete anytime soon simply because of the numbers of fixtures currently in use. I do agree that T5's are a better choice though.

I guess my first question would be what do you plan to keep in the tank?

 

[jallen18]

My first thoughts were FOWLR, with possibilities of corals in the future, pending budget.. My main concern right now is keeping the wife happy, which means keeping my costs down =)

 

[rsw686]

I've had both the CF and T5 lighting fixtures. Go T5 over the CF. Couple of reasons, T5's have more bulb choices, you can use individual reflectors with the T5s, and T5's run cooler.

The Current USA fixtures are just okay. I've used the Nova Extreme fixture your looking at and ended returning it. The fan was louder than I wanted and the fixture just didn't put out the light due to the single reflector. Not to mention that a bulb or ballast was failing within one month as one actinic bulb would only light sometimes.

Since you don't want corals right now the Nova Extreme would work. However since you seem to want them in the future its cheaper to buy the fixture you want the first time around.

One of the nicest T5 fixtures you can get is the Aquactinics TX5. It has a splash shield, 5 bulbs, individual reflectors, and is active cooled. Some people go with the Tek fixtures, but they were originally for a green house. Being passive cooled they don't come with a splash shield, you can add one but I think you could run into heat problems, and its only 4 bulbs vs 5. Plus the Aquactinics fixture the reflectors are angled so the fixture isn't as wide. Makes it easier to get your hands in the tank.

When I first setup my 90gal I didn't think I needed to spend that much on the light. I thought the Nova fixture would do, but when you see them side by side I would never go back to the Nova Extreme. The light output due to the individual reflectors is amazing.

 

[jallen18]

Wow, thanks for the heads up on the Nova, rsw. That Aquactinics TX5 looks sweet, but without bulbs included, it's going to be a bit higher than my budget right now. I'm wondering if I should just wait on lighting while the tank is cycling (is this common practice?) and save up to get the good stuff?

Or, anyone have any tried and true T5 fixtures with bulbs for under $275ish, preferably something that I could upgrade by adding another fixture later?

 

[rsw686]

Another option is to build a canopy and install T5 retrofit kits. The T5 retrofit kits aren't too expensive and you can add more as you have money. However I'm not sure what the cost of a canopy would be to match your tank.

I looked around when I bought mine and couldn't find cheaper fixtures that were built well. Another way to look at it is the Nova Extreme is $200. The bulbs for it run $88 and last around a year. If you keep the light for a year then your only out $112. At that point in time either buy a new fixture and bulbs or just new bulbs.

I sent you a PM for a deal on the Nova Extreme.

 

[kodyboy]

I would find the extra cash and get the aquactincs TX5 unit, much much better.