boostedirl
New member
I have been working on getting my 90g ready for months now. So far I've built a stand for it, figured out my plumbing, got a nice new super reef octopus skimmer, got gfo and gac reactors, and now i've come to my lighting. Well, here's the thing. I'm not sure the direction I want to take the lighting. I live in Ohio and we get all extremes of weather. In the summer, w/my a/c running in the house my 45g with two t5 ho 39w tank got up to around 81-82 w/the house thermostat set between 68-70. So that makes me curious how hot my 90g would get if I use the used light setup I bought for my tank that is one of those odyssea fixtures that has two 250w mh and I retrofited it with two 54w t5 ho bulbs to replace the pc that were in it. It has one icecap ballast and one of the generic ones that originally came with the light. With that lighting system running I measured it's power usage around 600w. I have been looking at the aqua illuminations fixtures. I am curious to know how many SOL White modules I would need. If I stay with my current fixture I'm looking at spending about $250-$300 for two new bulbs since I have no idea how old the bulbs in the fixture are and another ballast to match the intensity of the icecap. I only paid about $250 for the fixture so if I do nothing with it and sell it I'm not out that much money, plus I'd be saving money on bulbs and another ballast. I noticed the PAR readings claimed by Aqua Illuminations seem pretty good for their 36"x36" test they did. So would two units be sufficient for a standard size 90g? I'm not out to debate LED vs. MH, but I am interested in what I would need LED wise to grow a mixed reef tank. Thanks for your help,
Jeff
Jeff
