Lighting for 125

[thecichlidpleco]

Just got a 125, what kind of halides should I get. I run simple T-5s on my 40, so I am lost when it comes to metal halides.

 

[MercZ]

Stick with the T5's. But if your dead set get 2 250's.

 

[Jasonincuritiba]

Unfortunately the biggest T5's come in 60", so if you wanted to use T5's you would use two 36" bulbs to get the length so you would need four or six bulbs in all. Halides I would either do three 150 HQI's or three 250 HQI's.

 

[luke33]

For halides i'd go 3x250, for t5's i'd go retro 6x60" icecap's with the 660ic ballasts, this will overdrive your bulb's and you'll get 600w of t5's. Either way you go, you can keep anything anywhere.

 

[thecichlidpleco]

prices and good places to buy these?

 

[luke33]

Reefgeek, hellolights, diy lighting

 

[thecichlidpleco]

I looked at hellolights, should I use their bulbs for actinics and 50/50 or is there a better site or a better combination?

 

[E-A-G-L-E-S]

2 x 400w's in lumenarc's or lumenmax reflectors....two will cover 72" x 36" more than enough and extremely light up 60" x 30".
This is what i will be doing and I currently run a single 400w in a lumenmax 2 on my 58g(36"L x 28"W x 21"H)
2 x 250w if not an sps tank.
-imo

 

[thecichlidpleco]

Also, would it be better and cheaper for me to just build a canopy with icecaps?