Light brands and suggestions

J

Jakaru

Premium Member
I know you all were nice enough to give me some links before and looking for some again. My wife is tired of not seing fish in our saltwater and she wants a few. I told her we can not get anymore fish until I buy some light to keep the live rock alive and then buy live rock for filtration. (sucker) good thing she doesn't read the boards. So she now wants to "budget" the lights in for us. :rollface:

I'm looking for decent brands of lights and probably need the halides since the tank is only 30 inches and pc only doesn't cut it. Looking for whole fixtures and not retros probably halide pc combo for the color? Just want to keep softies and polyps mostly. I love color and movement heh. Probably wont be going with a clam so nothing overboard.

Just need an idea for what to look for and I apolagize for posting this because it seems to be pretty much the same post as before but now I've narrowed my search. :lol:
 
Hey Jakaru,

To me of your only going to do "softies and polyps mostly” I would suggest PC lighting, it is all I have and it works great.

What size is your tank? I have a 40 gal 36" long tank and I have 2 96 watt bulbs one 12k and one Blue actinic and it works great. Now I don’t have enough light for say sps but for what you are talking about its definitely fine and much cheaper.

Now if you end up doing sps one day or want that ability then you will probably want the Halides.

Remember that with Halides you will probably heat up your water to the point that you need a Chiller and that is a whole new problem to deal with. That is why I use the PC since it doesn’t heat my tank up much.

That’s my opinion; what does everyone else think?

Shaun
 
It's 60 gals and it's about 24 inches deep but only 30 wide. the problem when it comes to pc fixtures at 30 inch is that you can't really find anything with decent watts. really the most common is 2X65 and I would have to buy 2 of them and even then it's just over 3 wats/gal and it's wide at 18 inches front to back... so I just don't see pc fixtures as a realistic buy. If anyone thinks different please let me know. if I find like a 4x65 30 inch pc light set up that'd probably be good but I just couldn't find one.
 
My buddies tank is 30 inches deep and 92 gallons and he keeps toadstools, zoos, and hammers along with other softies under PC 96x2. Hope that helps, for what you want MH seems overboard. JMO
 
hmm well the dimensions are 30 inches left to right. 18 front to back and 24 from top to bottom. 2X65 pc is what I can get at 30 inches. You think this would be enough? I want to be able to put some things low so I don't just crowd the top of the tank. I love opinions. More than one way to skin a cat so to speak.
 
look at t-5 lighting. You could get a fixture that houses 4 bulbs. Not sure of wattage but everyone that I know that runs T-5 loves them
 
FWIW I went for pc's and now i am sorry I did. The cost for replacement bulbs every 6-8 months is expensive. Go with the T-5's or MH's. You never know when you will become fond of SPS.
 
Still the same problem. finding a 30inch fixture with enough light to grow something. I found a 24 inch 4X24watts t-5 fixture. about as close as I came so far I'll keep looking.
 
hmm it seems that t-5's that would fit in a fixture for me only comes in 24 inch lights at 24 wats per light so if I went this way wouldn't I need a bunch to pull off the same affect or do you need less watts when going with t-5?
 
You need less watts from what I have read and that is one of the reasons people like them.
But don't get me wrong I personally would by MH's thats what I am going with next. But I have read lots of people that are happy with the T-5's
 
Problem is I don't have anything really. It's a single florecent bulb from a freshwater tank. What does everyone think? two 2X65 watt pc or two 4X24watt t-5's Or just say frag it and go with pc halide combo? I really would rather not heat up the tank and have to buy yet another piece of equipment.
 
hmm so two fixtures then. at 18 inches deep that shouldn't be a problem I'll look around. anyone know good deals for some lights?
 
4x65 pc would be a waste of $$$ if you are going to do that then go with the t-5. Or build a canopy and either retrofit a halide or 6x24watt T-5
 
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