Lighting Website Updates

[TropTrea]

gor the past seven months I have had one AI vega over my 55 gallon tank, yes I know 2 would be better but i'm a poor college kid who can't afford 2, but one day i will. I have seen great growth in my acans. My montis were slow at first but in just the past month I have seen great growth and it is now plating up well. The light sits about 12 inches over the tank atop of a self made canopy the of course is painted white on the inside to help reflect the light, but I have an idea of using that white as a base layer and then putting a layer of the highly reflective chrome paint. Has anyone tried this yet?

Look into some of the local metal shops and see if they have polished Alumnium sheets. I used them a few years back and the results was fantastic no both T-5's as well as MH's. The real secret of sucess with with it is the way you bend it to reflect the maximium amount of light into the tank rather than back at the light, or out the sides of the tanks.

 

[diverdan6996]

LED Query

LED Query

OK, I bought 1 Radion G2 for my 55 on 9/14/13, have had it set on mfg's 'color template' setting to date. Now I would like some advice on kicking a custom setting for growth & color, because I'd hate to wipe out what I have with experimentation....after all I am just a po' boy!!!

 

[TropTrea]

OK, I bought 1 Radion G2 for my 55 on 9/14/13, have had it set on mfg's 'color template' setting to date. Now I would like some advice on kicking a custom setting for growth & color, because I'd hate to wipe out what I have with experimentation....after all I am just a po' boy!!!

First off make changes slowly. No more than 5% on any one channel every week or preferably two weeks. More Blue light yield more florescence and also more growth. But if you hit a threshold the return become negative. Fining that point is sometimes a pain. Then adjusting the white part of the spectrum will be there 95% for improving your viewing please. Personal taste will determine if this is at 20% of full power or 80% full power.

 

[Snyper19]

Hi, I'm planning into converting to LEDs, I own an RSM 250 (65gal) but I'm not sure if I should get 1 radion (gen2 or gen3), I'm not sure if one should be enough....

Other option I saw was the maxspect razor 160watts 16k.

Will either LEDs fixture be enough for my tank?

I'm new to LEDs please be gentle.

Thanks

 

[TropTrea]

Hi, I'm planning into converting to LEDs, I own an RSM 250 (65gal) but I'm not sure if I should get 1 radion (gen2 or gen3), I'm not sure if one should be enough....

Other option I saw was the maxspect razor 160watts 16k.

Will either LEDs fixture be enough for my tank?

I'm new to LEDs please be gentle.

Thanks

For a 65 gallon tank you should be in the range of 130 to 195 total wattage. When you get a dimmable LED fixture you want to up that considerably as you not want to run all your LED's at 100% power to get the light you personaly like.

Now depending on the corals your keeping you can go the high or low end of the current range. Also the quality of the fixture will make a big variation in how much light your getting at the same wattage. I would avoid fixtures that are delivering 1 watt per LED as this adds to the cost and the old 1 watt leds are less efficient than the newer 5 and 10 watt LED's.

Also consider DIY LED's. LED's are the easiest to build yourself. Most people can build a fantastic system for well under $2.00 per watt. Plus it gives you the options to have the light spectrum you want rather what someone boxed thinking everyone will like it.

 

[byerlydb]

Hello,
this is my first time posting. So I have a Red Sea max 34 gallon tank and I am trying to figure out how haed it would be to retro fit the tank with LED lighting. I found a setup that might work (Aqua Ray) but can not find out any prices or where to even buy it. Does anyone know what it would take to retro the hood of my system and what I should use?

 

[TropTrea]

Ypu 34 gallon tank has a surface area of 19" X 23" Which is a fairly unusual size. The Smallest T-5 fixtures made a 24" and there is limited selection of bulbs for these fixtures. There are several LED fixtures out there that would work for you but with the LED's the range is from fantastic to garbage and you really have to know what your buying or you will taken in that market.

If I were you I would look for roughly a 90 Watt LED fixture that is suspend able from the ceiling. If you do not have that option then when you consider making brackets for one your better off building your own LED fixture. Building your own LED fixture should cost you under $1.50 per watt unless you like loads of extra bells and whistles on it.

 

[Chosmic]

Hey, so I have a 20 gallon reef tank. 1 o. Clown, 1 blue spot puffer, 1 starry blenny, 2 peppermint shrimp, 2 turbo snail, 2 hermits, 3 zebra hermits, serpent sea star, and a blue mushroom coral. Could I get a recommendation on a light and protein skimmer? I'm new to this so I don't know much on lighting and protein skimmers. I have a 15watt light and obviously need to go up I'm thinking up near 80 watts maybe LEDs? I plan on getting more soft corals and maybe some LPS. Please help I want to upgrade as soon as possible
Also I am new to this lighting and protein stuff, please help!

 

[TropTrea]

Hey, so I have a 20 gallon reef tank. 1 o. Clown, 1 blue spot puffer, 1 starry blenny, 2 peppermint shrimp, 2 turbo snail, 2 hermits, 3 zebra hermits, serpent sea star, and a blue mushroom coral. Could I get a recommendation on a light and protein skimmer? I'm new to this so I don't know much on lighting and protein skimmers. I have a 15watt light and obviously need to go up I'm thinking up near 80 watts maybe LEDs? I plan on getting more soft corals and maybe some LPS. Please help I want to upgrade as soon as possible
Also I am new to this lighting and protein stuff, please help!

For a tank ths small the Hang on Back Prism Protein skimmer would probably be one of your best bets.

For your lighting I would go with a h0me Built LED system. You should be able to get away with something in the range of 40 to 60 watts using quality LED's and be able to grow anything you want. LED selection I would go with 4 Neutral White, 8 Royal Blue, 4 True Blue LED's. You want the 5 Watt LED's from Cree with the exception of the True Blues that only come in 3 Watt. Run a pair of drivers with 4 Royal Blues and 4 Neutral Whites on one driver, then use the other 8 LED's on the other driver.

Running them all on 700 ma drivers would give you enough light for the mushroom corals and any other soft corals you wanted to add. This is 32 Watts total but with LEd lighting it is equivalent to 48 to 60 watts of other types. If you later decide to add Large Polyp Stoney corals one of the drivers to 1040ma will give you about 40 Watts of power. And if you run both at 1040 ma you get 48 Watts of power. If you really want to spike it up to keep the most light demanding corals and even a Clam then run a 1300ma driver on your white and 4 royal blues to push nearly 6 watts total. With Clams though you may want to add a pair of near UV LED's on the other Circuit.

Commercial LED's I would look for a fixture in the 80 watt range as most are not as efficient as home built units. For T-5 lighting you want to be around 100 total.

 

[hypnoj]

can anyone point me in the right direction to find PAR numbers for power compacts? I'm trying to find out the PAR output of the 29g biocube PC bulbs. Anyone have any info for me?

 

[jimmy2014]

Quick question I now use a Aquactinics 175W MH with 2 t5s on my 54 corner tank -This unit sits right on top of my glass hood.
How much light is lost using a glass hood ?
I also may try to lift the unit a few inches of the glass ,how high should it be

It is upto the glass thickness and material inside, normally, about 3% ~4.5% will loss , Arylic could be more

 

[alanhuard]

can I take Aquarium Hoods and Aquarium Canopies lighting for my aquarium????

 

[Miz40B]

Which lights are causing my issue? Whites or blues? Or is it the lights?

40B/20L sump, in sump skimmer, sock, Sicce 2.0 return MP10/WP10 power heads.

I currently am running 180w (rated) LED's. 90 and 120 degree optics. Using a 10min/8hr ramping schedule, max being 30/50%


I have what at first I thought were diatoms. But it is not going away after 9wks up and running. This brown stuff (at least it looks brown under the LED's) is mainly on the sand bed. With a light dusting on the back wall. I dose nothing.

2 lil fish. 2 Scarlet Hermits and a few assorted snails.

NO2/NO3=.0
Ammonia=.0
PH=8.0
Ca=440
Alk=8.2
Mag=1440
PO4=0.02

 

[Miz40B]

Issue resolved

 

[TropTrea]

It is upto the glass thickness and material inside, normally, about 3% ~4.5% will loss , Acrylic could be more

This depends on the Acrylic your using. High quality clear acrylic is only a fraction of the loss you get with glass. But lower grades can or none clear grades can drop down well below anything you want to use. If your getting your acrylic from a reputable source they can provide you with the information of how much filtering power they have and which frequencies.

 

[jkhudson]

T-5 Lighting for a 55 Gal.

T-5 Lighting for a 55 Gal.

I'm setting up a standard 55 and I have a retrofit canopy holding 4 T5's. What bulbs will give me the best light for monti's and LPS? TIA.

 

[TropTrea]

I'm setting up a standard 55 and I have a retrofit canopy holding 4 T5's. What bulbs will give me the best light for monti's and LPS? TIA.

there is no quick answer to this. Personal color taste is a very big issue. However the basic is to use 3 bulbs with a strong blue spectrum like the Blue Plus. Then for the 4th bulb you chose one that will at least a little red and bring up the full spectrum to what best pleases your eye. If you like a bright tank something in the 6,500 K family, if you like a bluer looking tank then something that is a mix of full spectrum and blues.

The range of the spectrum would be from the whitest to the bluest...
6,500K
10,000K
an Aqua Blue Bulb
the Coral Plus bulbs
and last the "purple bulbs"

Remember with just 4 bulbs the combinations are more limited not allowing as subtle of a changes between steps as someone running more bulbs.

 

[Ty1e]

Lighting Website Updates

Hey guys,
I have an ATi hybrid LED 8xT-5 unit, I'll need new bulbs in the next few months, whats a good bulb combo and LED intensity mix for this unit?

It's over a 40X20X20 SPS tank

 

[TNTFISHY]

6 bulb t5ho combo for ATI sunpower. Where to buy bulbs?

6 bulb t5ho combo for ATI sunpower. Where to buy bulbs?

I last bought online, but shop closed.

Amazon? Any suggestions?

 

[hummer41269]

iv heard good things about this brand Radion XR30w LED