Ideas for lighting a 37 Gallon

travis442

travis442

New member
Hi Guys,

I'm finally getting my overflow and sump set up and want to upgrade my lighting as well. Currently I just have the Eclipse hood on my tank and it puts out like 40w. I'm having a hard time though finding a lighting fixture that is going to put out a decent amount of light while still fitting on the tank. So I was wondering if you guys had any suggestions as to different lights that might work for my application.

Ok here are the measurements for the tank its a 37 gallon tank with dimensions of 30" x 12" I would like to be able to keep a few more coral than I am now cause right now I'm pretty limited by my light output.

I appreciate any help you guys can give. Thanks
 
How comfortable are you with modifying your Eclipse 3? Assuming you have the standard 30x12 Eclipse hood with two 18w T8 bulbs, the easiest fix would be to retro fit two 24 watt T5 bulbs. You would need to add the ballast somewhere, but the wiring would be able to follow the same path as the current setup. You could use a Fulham Workhorse 3 ballast, two sets of T5 endcaps, and two bulbs of your color choice. I bet you could do it for about $75 brand new, or less if you can find used. Reflectors would be another great addition, but even without the T5 setup will be a lot brighter than your current setup and only add 12w to the electric bill. :D
 
Well I wouldn't have an issue with modifying the hood I'm going to have to do that in the first place to get the overflow to fit on it when I install the sump next week. Which is going to make the hood useless for anybody else in the future anyways.

I would really rather get rid of the hood all together if at all possible, I know I'm not going to be able to upgrade my lighting drastically since the tank isn't very long but surely somebody makes a small fixture that would fit on it??
 
If you are ditching the Eclipse you have a lot of options. The easiest would be to just build a canopy and retrofit whatever you want. You could run a single halide, a 4 bulb T5 setup, PC's, VHO, etc. You could also get a ready to run unit, but more than likely you would have to hang it from the ceiling since I haven't seen any 30" units with legs.
 
Yeah I'm planning on ditching the Eclipse time to move to bigger and better things, I'm excited to get rid of it. Yeah that seems to have been my thing so far I can't find a unit that will fit on the 30" tank.

I would probably just build the canopy like you suggested but right now I'm living in an apartment and don't have the access to tools like I would need.

I was thinking there might me a 24" unit that would have adjustable legs that would fit it but I haven't really seen that yet.
 
For now you could make a simple hood out of wood from Home Depot. Just go and get 12x1 lumber and have them cut it for you. Figure 12"x1"x31.5" long for the front, 12"x1"x30" for the top, two 12"x1"x12" long for the sides, and some 2"x1" for the bottom edges to sit on the tank. A little bottle of Elmers and some screws and you are all set. Just screw the sides into the front, and the top into the sides (and front if you want) and finally the 2x1 into the edges at the bottom to rest on the tank. Paint the inside flat white and mount whatever kind of lighting you want. The back will be open for air flow and your overflow + cords. Paint the outside to your liking (if you want). You can add trim and molding to make it fancy or just leave it as is. I bet you could slap it together for less than $20 and it will be pretty light/easy to move around if you need to access the tank. You could go fancier and add a door to the front, but that gets you back to needing tools.
 
You are right I could do that pretty easily, and it looks like that may be one of my few options if I want to upgrade to a decent amount of lighting.

So as far as lighting goes do you have any recommendations as to what kind of lighting would be good? Building the canopy will be the cheap part.
 
i am in the building stages of a 29 that has the same 30x12 footprint....just not as tall as yours

i built a canopy & am doing (4) 24" t5s on it. check my build thread out. i even have the bulb combo listed that was recommended to me by grim reefer on page 5 :)
 
I like James suggestion to be honest. It seems the way to go for you. I myself would prefer a single 175w metal halide and a spider reflector, but I am a bit concerned with heat on such a small tank. A nice 175w Iwasaki 15k bulb sure would look pretty though. :)
 
So I guess I was thinking that I would need more light than just the 96W that the 4 T5's will provide. Is there that much difference between the T5 bulbs and the T8's that the Eclipse came with?

I'm not wanting to keep anything too serious but I would like to see more growth and have the ability to keep some more corals that are a little more light demanding than what the Eclipse is providing me.

So Entropy you think that the 175W metal halide would produce to much heat for my tank? I definitely do not want to have to buy a chiller at this point and time.

Oh and james3370 I checked out the thread and it looks like you have a nice setup in progress. What all are you planning on keeping in your tank?
 
I think the 96w of T5 will let you keep quite a bit actually including some SPS. The T5's with the right reflectors pack a lot more punch than the T8 bulbs. Even without reflectors they pack more punch per watt.

I think you could get away with a single halide if you added some fans. Having the back open will help as well. I have a single 250w halide over my 58g in an enclosed canopy (no open back) and it raises the temp about 2 degrees on really hot days. Of course it will depend on the temp of your room as well. I just like the glitter lines you get with a halide and the lighting is more natural to me. T5's are nice but the lighting is very even all the way across the tank were the halide is bright in the middle and less so as you spread out. Some like the even lighting because you can grow more evenly across the tank, while halides grow better the closer you get to the bulb.
 
I have the same exact tank, and I have two coralife clamp on 150w hqi's on mine. You can pick them up used pretty cheap....
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14970564#post14970564 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by krominix
I have the same exact tank, and I have two coralife clamp on 150w hqi's on mine. You can pick them up used pretty cheap....
Click to expand...

Do you have any pics of your tank setup?
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14970486#post14970486 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by travis442
So I was looking at James3370's build thread but I never saw what kit he isusing in his canopy. I saw the bulb choices but never saw what ballast and everything else he is running.

So do you have any suggestions on a good kit to use for the 96W of the T5. I was looking and did find the following fixture in 30" but have no idea on if it is a good one or not

http://www.marineandreef.com/Nova_SunDial_T5_Current_USA_p/rcu01151.htm
Click to expand...

i am using (2) of the 24" 2-bulb retrofit kits from www.reefgeek.com ....the 4-bulb kit is the same as (2) of the 2-bulb & slightly cheaper

they both come w/ the standard ballast. i bought an icecap 430 ballast in the sale forums that i plan to use on the daylight bulbs to slightly overdrive them instead of it's regular ballast

the reefgeek retrofits are very nice, good price & they include your choice of bulbs (they have all the popular ones)
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14970930#post14970930 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by james3370
i am using (2) of the 24" 2-bulb retrofit kits from www.reefgeek.com ....the 4-bulb kit is the same as (2) of the 2-bulb & slightly cheaper

they both come w/ the standard ballast. i bought an icecap 430 ballast in the sale forums that i plan to use on the daylight bulbs to slightly overdrive them instead of it's regular ballast

the reefgeek retrofits are very nice, good price & they include your choice of bulbs (they have all the popular ones)
Click to expand...

So if I were to just get the 4 bulb 4x24w with the standard ballast do you think I would need to include fans in the canopy? Or do you think that with the open back it would run cool enough that I would probably be ok?

Also how far above the water should the lights be mounted?
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14975067#post14975067 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by travis442
So if I were to just get the 4 bulb 4x24w with the standard ballast do you think I would need to include fans in the canopy? Or do you think that with the open back it would run cool enough that I would probably be ok?

Also how far above the water should the lights be mounted?
Click to expand...

if i were to do my canopy over again, i wouldn't put the fans on the side.....

my suggestion for an open-back would be to put (1) 120mm fan on one side of the back blowing inward toward the front of the canopy. then when you put the bulbs in the endcaps, make sure you put the end of the bulbs that has the writing on it on the fan end. t5s "hotspot" that benefits from active cooling is the end w/ the writing.

then, my other suggestion would be to do like i did w/ mine in the top.....either leave a open slot in the top or several 2" or so sized drilled holes. that will give an escape route for the hot air that will naturally rise to the top of the canopy.

mine are mounted 4-1/2" off the top of the tank....because i have 4" fans (how's that for a scientific reason?) LOL
 
Last edited:
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14975402#post14975402 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by james3370
if i were to do my canopy over again, i wouldn't put the fans on the side.....

my suggestion for an open-back would be to put (1) 120mm fan on one side of the back blowing inward toward the front of the canopy. then when you put the bulbs in the endcaps, make sure you put the end of the bulbs that has the writing on it on the fan end. t5s "hotspot" that benefits from active cooling is the end w/ the writing.

then, my other suggestion would be to do like i did w/ mine in the top.....either leave a open slot in the top or several 2" or drilled holes. that will give an escape route for the hot air that will naturally rise to the top of the canopy.

mine are mounted 4-1/2" off the top of the tank....because i have 4" fans (how's that for a scientific reason?) LOL
Click to expand...

That sounds good to me, at this point I'm really leaning towards going with that kit and building my canopy. Of course it will be a little bit different than your probably a little simpler without the sliding light shelf.

And going that way will give me the ability to like you said upgrade the ballast in the future if I find a good deal and get a little better light output from the same light which would be much harder to do with a fixture.

One question I do have though is how do you connect the fans? What are you plugging them into? Are you wiring them into the ballast so that when the lights are on the fans are too?

Do you have room in your canopy to put six lights if you really wanted to or is that cutting it pretty close?

Thanks for you input on everything.
 
here's what i'd suggest from reefgeek:

Icecap 4-bulb retrofit kit $289 including your choice of bulbs. this includes (2) ballasts so you can do the daylight & actinc bulbs on differnt times.

for bulbs, grim reefer's suggestion to me was as follows:

(front to back)

Giesemann Pure Actinic
ATI Aquablue
Giesemann 6k Midday
Giesemann Actinc Plus

the front & rear bulbs would be wired on 1 ballasts & those are the early morning/daytime/nighttime time cycle & the 2 center bulbs would be on the other ballast & the daytime cycle
 
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