Help with Lighting my 60g

[slingham]

I've got a 60 gallon aquarium with about 75 lbs of live rock in it. We currently have an Aquaglo Fluorescent light on it but want to get some Power Compacts going to get get the live rock going.

We're pretty new at this and don't know to much about lighting. We do have a ballast however and hope that it will provide enough power to light the tank. If not we can always get a second.

Here's the ballast we have:
Jalli CFR55W24
120 Volts, 60Hz
PL55W x 1 Lamp x 2 PCS
BIAX RAPID START

Where do we go from here?

 

[Reeferon]

do u have a canopy on the tank?

what are the tanks dimensions?

....what kind of ballast do u have on it?

 

[slingham]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9601958#post9601958 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Reeferon
do u have a canopy on the tank?

what are the tanks dimensions?

....what kind of ballast do u have on it?

I posted the ballast info in my initial post.

The tank is a 60 gallon, 4 feet wide, bout 15 inches deep an about 18 inches tall. It's also acrylic.

Yes it has a canopy

 

[slingham]

anyone have anything??? i'm desperate for some lighting advice!

 

[five.five-six]

is this going to be a reef? sps, lps, soft correls?

 

[Reeferon]

Since it has a canopy you can retrofit everything into the canopy.

You can put the power compact ballast in there with 2 x 65 watt PC's.

Then I would recommend getting another retrofit. T5 would be your best bet.

Something like this would be awesome:
http://hellolights.com/482x54wt5hor.html

 

[slingham]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9605038#post9605038 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Reeferon
Since it has a canopy you can retrofit everything into the canopy.

You can put the power compact ballast in there with 2 x 65 watt PC's.

Then I would recommend getting another retrofit. T5 would be your best bet.

Something like this would be awesome:
http://hellolights.com/482x54wt5hor.html

That should be a good amount of lighting then for the amount of live rock I have right? It sounds like it'd be perfect.

 

[carlos_fb]

Forget about PC's, get T5's, reefgeek.com has some really good prices on retrofit kits. If you get a Tek kit, don't forget to update your reflectors to SLR's.

Here's a picture of my 60 gallon with a 4x54 T5 retrofit kit.

 

[slingham]

If that was something within my budget I'd do that. Unfortunately, it'll have to be power compacts for my tank.

 

[Dholmblad]

PC bulbs are expensive. I dont kn ow how t5 bubls compare but from the lfs(where I was initially buting them) the price was about $40 a bulb. I later found a 12 pack of my choosing for $100 online.

 

[Reeferon]

What exactly is your budget??

 

[slingham]

My budget is about $200, the company I work for we are vendors of Sylvania and Philips, so if anyone here can set up as much of a system for me with either of those companies, I can order it, not to mention ship you some for some awesome prices.

 

[Reeferon]

Try this:
http://hellolights.com/4laaromo4lvb.html

You can use 4 foot bulbs from your company. The only usable ones that they will probablly have will be 6500k spectrum ones. If they are NO bulbs, they will just burn out quicker; whick is OK because you get them dirt cheap.

I would get two of those 6500k spectrum bulbs. Then invest in two actinic bulbs from the same website as the ballast kit.

Your tank is not going to be as bright white as others; but I'm sure it will still look good.

o yea, paint the inside of your canopy flat white so that it will act as a reflector.

with that kind of lighting you should be able to do most corals, even some lower light SPS.
other people will tell you that you cant, but dont listen to them.... I am speaking from first hand experience with 4 VHO's on a 55 gallon tank in the past.

 

[slingham]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9612007#post9612007 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Reeferon
Try this:
http://hellolights.com/4laaromo4lvb.html

You can use 4 foot bulbs from your company. The only usable ones that they will probablly have will be 6500k spectrum ones. If they are NO bulbs, they will just burn out quicker; whick is OK because you get them dirt cheap.

I would get two of those 6500k spectrum bulbs. Then invest in two actinic bulbs from the same website as the ballast kit.

Your tank is not going to be as bright white as others; but I'm sure it will still look good.

o yea, paint the inside of your canopy flat white so that it will act as a reflector.

with that kind of lighting you should be able to do most corals, even some lower light SPS.
other people will tell you that you cant, but dont listen to them.... I am speaking from first hand experience with 4 VHO's on a 55 gallon tank in the past.

Which company? Or are you just assuming they make them?

 

[Reeferon]

Yes, I was assuming that they make them.

If they don't, you can also buy 4 foot 6500K bulbs at Lowes for like $6.