lighting for hex tank?

TOYTEK

TOYTEK

Member
I bought that 35 Hex from 6Speed, and its gonna be my daughters birthday present(she'll be 6 next month). I am trying to come up with a way to light this tank without having to build a hood. The easiest way would be a 20" fixture, but I would rather have the lights parallel to the front of the tank. I could also go with a clamp on 150 watt MH, but would rather go with PC or T5 lighting(I would prefer a fixture with built in moonlights, but also consider DIY). Does anyone have any ideas? Maybe custom mount or modifying legs for a fixture or something?
 
She wants "Nemo's" and I plan on sticking with just softies, so I'm figuring 105-140 watts (3-4 W/Gallon). The only 20" fixture I've seen is 96 watt Corallife. That's another reason for wanting to try to make a 24" fixture fit.
 
Don't remenber dimensions on the 35 hex but I have a 60 hex and am using a coralife 24" double PC putting out 130 watts. Twin 65's. You can adjust the legs in if needed and I just made a cardboard cutout for the glass top (if you wnt tops) and had a glass cutting service cut them for me.
 
Here is the hook up~

http://www.ballastwise.com/item.asp?PID=128&FID=1&level=0

70$ electronic MH ballast

9$ brinks or "any" 300 to 500 watt halogen light from wal-mart, lowes, home depot.

And your choice of 250 watt bulb. The halogen shoplight will serve as a fixture and will have the HQI endcaps. All said you could have 250 watts of 14 K hamiltons over the hex for under 150$'s with good par, great color, and 7.14 watts per gallon with a good depth ratio for a 250 watt.

Link is nano reef.com for the mod in detail "40 pages"
 
I thought that 300 to 500watt halogen light fixture can accomodate a 150W MH bulb. I did the mod for 70W MH with 300 watt halogen fixture. These hallogen sockets appear to be too small for 250w.

Tomoko
 
The 60 is 24" on flat and 27" on point with a depth of 30". Its actually a FW planted tank with Heckel Discus in it but I'll try to find a pic and post it.
 
If you want to do it the easy way, just get a 175w pendant MH and hang it above the tank. I had a 250w pendant MH on my 65 Hex Reef. It worked well but didn't give me enough light for SPS (due to water depth).
 
Thanks everyone for your input. I still haven't settled on a decision, but will probably go with 2x65w PC retrofit. I'll definitely remember the DIY MH that edwar050 suggested if I ever decide to step up the light on my 55. Anyway, thanks again.
 
I vote for a 150W or a 175W MH pendant, too. It's a good match for a hex tank. The ability ot raise the light fixture up and down is a definite plus.

Tomoko
 
I thought I recalled someone on the thread using a 250 HQI bulb in the halogen retrofit though I am not totally sure. I moded it for my 12 DX nano in the stock hood, and vented the heat to both fans and out of the unit and I run at hottest 82 degrees right now with a "hydor" maxi jet 1200. The 70 watt ballast bulb and mod cost me about 75$'s.
 
I got my 70W electronic ballast for $25 used. Someone was using a number of them for glowing plants indoor. I even got a hallogen lamp fixture on clearence at Home Depot for just one dollar. There are still some good deals out there :)

70W bulb on the other hand was something like $75, which I find it rather expensive for being so small. It's like a pair of baby's sneakers.

Tomoko
 
They have awesome deals on electronic ballast on ballast wise the 70 watt halide electronic ballast is 30$'s. There are a couple of places to get astrea lux 70 watt bulbs for about 40$'s. I picked up my bulbs from a guy in Hong Kong for 30$ for the bulb. There are moonlights via wal-mart/lowes that are for kids nightlights that have switches that sense the light and autoo cut on/off and come with everything needed to run/are high output for 5$ to 10$'s a piece. "just picked up four from wally world for my 120 and 12 pretty sweet deal at such a cheap price, comparable online would have been 60$'s + easy~
 
I think I recall you saying something about the long burn time of the Pheonix bulbs. I love the DIY forum here on RC. They are always coming up with great mods for our equipment and new ideas like the superbright led moonlights.
 
Lol yup exactly what I was talking about; Somebody posted a tricked out hex tank about a year ago in this forum and I had tried to find it as I was interested in the tank as well. Somebody made a sump to fit inside the stand which rocked. The only kicker with the 250 watt is the ability to keep a wide range of sps~ I would just worry about frequent water changes, calcium levels, and adequate filtration, though it would be sweet if you had a stable system you could plumb it into. I was thinking about eventually ordering a custom 45 or so hex with small back overflow outside of the hex w return and stacking the rock up to the top of the tank like a large triangle and hooking up monti cap with acros near the top and zoa's at the bottom thought this project is way off. Just one idea for a cool hex~ aquascaping is going to be wicked tough~ so is flow. Might want to think about one of the maxi jet 1200's moded. High flow, small size, and little heat for decent $.

http://www.reefchili.com/MJmods.html
any body know about this reef chili?

I would def check out the nano forums on here and in on nanoreef.com You could have an insanely sweet 35 hex with a lot of work for a reasonable cost.
 
You must be thinking about the thread of 8Ball's hex tank (65G?). The sump is a real beauty. He made another one for the seahorse tank at CRA.

You can do an SPS dominated tank in a small tank, but I would go bigger if I were you. Acros and montis grow so fast that in a year you will be needing a new tank. You may be thinking that you can trim branches, but If you can see the way they encrust rocks and harass the hell out of each other (at junctions), you will think twice about growing SPS's in a small tank like a 45 Hex. My SPS frags just about outgrew their 120G in 2 years. My orange monti digi has taken over a part of the tank and growing up its neigboring acropora branches. In another area a few acros are fighting where their encrusted bases meet. Then there are those millis - "Kill, kill, kill" must be their slogan...

Tomoko
 
edwar050 you read my mind, I was planning on a modded MJ 1200. and modding one of the ones in my 55 as well. I think I've settled on a Corallife 2 x 65w 24" fixture as I don't plan on keeping SPS or clams in this tank. Thanks again everyone.
 
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