Lighting assistance

[Charlie's Angel]

I am re-doing my lighting and have received 4 LA III's with 14k ushio bulbs and am looking to supplement the lighting for some dusk/dawn veiwing. I was thinking about placing the LA's towards the back of the tank and running some 48 inch T5's (Sunlight Supply Ready Fit T5 48" Retrofit Kit)
along the front. The LA III's are standard not the minis, so I am a little tight on room. I will be hanging everything, not building a rack. I am only looking for these to add a little color/lighting while the halides are off. Any advice or recommendations from the experts would be great?

 

[Nanook]

I have the exact size tank as you do and used four LumenBright reflectors with two VHOs on each side of the reflectors. T5's just don't compare to VHOs.

 

[Nanook]

Oops, just saw that you have full-sized Lumenarcs I would not negate the spread of the reflector by putting them back with T5's up front...

I chose the minis just so I could put a row of VHO on each side of the reflectors. With the 14Ks you might be just fine without supplementation anyway.

 

[Charlie's Angel]

That what I was thinking when making the initial purchase. Was hoping for a little morning and night lighting, but I maybe I will just stick with the initial plan and stagger when they shut on an off. The regular ones make it impossible to supplement in between the reflectors, but I wanted the wider spread.

 

[Charlie's Angel]

Nanook or anyone...If I just stick with the 4 halides and want some moonlights for night time viewing...what would you recommend? I was looking at putting a few small led's between the hoods and running them on a moon cycle with my soon to be purchased controller (that is whole new research project).

 

[Charlie's Angel]

bump for ideas on moonlights