lighting ?
- Thread starter warnertd1
- Start date
NeveSSL
Got tubes?
Do you know if you want a hood or just a light fixture over your tank?
Actually, now that I think about it, I believe you ordered your tank with a canopy, correct? If so, the retrofit kits will be what you want.
In that size tank, probably 8 60" bulbs staggered would work wonderfully and would light anything you would want to keep while also being economical to run.
The cool thing is that MTRC members get discounts from ReefGeek.com, and I recommend buying from them. They have great prices, great customer service, and have supported our club a lot (they have been Platinum sponsors for two years in a row, I think).
Here's a link to the retrofit kit you would want to get from them.
Metal halides are another very viable option, but I'm not sure how many you would need to light your tank and you would need to replace the bulbs every 6 months at about $80/bulb. T5s last about 12 to 18 months. They do, however, look AWESOME (IMHO slightly better than T5s, but not enough for me personally to justify the extra cost).
Someone with more experience than myself can chime in on some additional details as well.
Oh, and you can get a computer from ReefGeek similar to the one I had, too. On a system as large as yours, I would recommend this one., although this one would work almost just as well, it only has fewer features.
Hope this helps!
Brandon
Actually, now that I think about it, I believe you ordered your tank with a canopy, correct? If so, the retrofit kits will be what you want.
In that size tank, probably 8 60" bulbs staggered would work wonderfully and would light anything you would want to keep while also being economical to run.
The cool thing is that MTRC members get discounts from ReefGeek.com, and I recommend buying from them. They have great prices, great customer service, and have supported our club a lot (they have been Platinum sponsors for two years in a row, I think).
Here's a link to the retrofit kit you would want to get from them.
Metal halides are another very viable option, but I'm not sure how many you would need to light your tank and you would need to replace the bulbs every 6 months at about $80/bulb. T5s last about 12 to 18 months.
They do, however, look AWESOME (IMHO slightly better than T5s, but not enough for me personally to justify the extra cost).Someone with more experience than myself can chime in on some additional details as well.
Oh, and you can get a computer from ReefGeek similar to the one I had, too. On a system as large as yours, I would recommend this one., although this one would work almost just as well, it only has fewer features.
Hope this helps!
Brandon
james3370
Premium Member
in my incessant searching/price comparing, reefgeek had the best prices when you factor in the fact that you can choose any bulb for their retrofit package & their shipping is super-low
....just wish i had known about the mtrc discount when i ordered my 3 retrofit kits from them
....just wish i had known about the mtrc discount when i ordered my 3 retrofit kits from them
DMBillies
Active member
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14191595#post14191595 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by NeveSSL
Metal halides are another very viable option, but I'm not sure how many you would need to light your tank and you would need to replace the bulbs every 6 months at about $80/bulb. T5s last about 12 to 18 months.
According to Sanjay at the talk, he's running his bulbs for 13-15 months since his studies have shown that the majority of bulbs are only dropping off about 30% of the usuable output (PAR) after 18months. Most of that drop is on the blue end of the spectrum, so you'll notice the light looking a little whiter/yellower, but in terms of photosynthesis you can get a lot more life out of them than 6 months (at least for reputable bulbs).
I would really like to see similar aging data for T5's, because it is my suspicion that you can get a lot more life out of those than people are too.
In any case, when thinking about the amount of light you need, be sure to consider how close you can get the lights to the water surface. Sanjay said to me after the talk that the surface of the water can essentially be considered "air" in that it doesn't reflect a whole lot of light because of the angle that the light is entering the water. That said, everyone at the talk could see from the readings he showed that distance makes a big difference for the intensity measurements, so if you can get T5's 6" closer to the water by not mounting the lights in the top of the canopy (halides you can't really mount that close to the water because of the heat issues), your corals will be getting a lot more usable light from the same amount of energy expenditure (and heat production). In reality, I think cutting down the distance the light travels is the main advantage of T5's over halides (along with maybe slightly lower bulb replacement costs).
I built a hinged rack to hold the lights inside of my hood that I can pull down to make sure the lights are only about 3" off of the water surface instead of the 9" they would have been if I had just mounted them to the top of the hood. Just something to think about...
DMBillies
Active member
H@rry,
Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of it and I can't get one because my hood is currently in storage and wrapped for its own protection. I will better describe what I did...
I used 1"x2"s to make a simple square frames (with a couple of diagonal cross supports to prevent warping). Since my tank is 7' I used 5' T5's and overlapped them in the middle, so I had to put cross bars where the retrofits would actually mount.
Then, I drilled through the rack and pulled the wires up through and ran all the wiring on top (hoping to prevent any salt from getting on that). I simply inserted the entire rack inside of my hood and used a couple of big hinges in the back. I used plant tension hangers so that I could easily raise and lower the rack without it slamming shut on me.
When I would hinge it down over the tank, the bulbs would be just above the cross bars (maybe 2-3" from the water surface) and with it hinged up I had maybe 6-7 inches of clearance (the height of the rack with the bulbs on will be like 5-6 inches high). It's on an angle when it is open but if you think about reaching into a tank, your arm is almost always at the same angle.
Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of it and I can't get one because my hood is currently in storage and wrapped for its own protection. I will better describe what I did...
I used 1"x2"s to make a simple square frames (with a couple of diagonal cross supports to prevent warping). Since my tank is 7' I used 5' T5's and overlapped them in the middle, so I had to put cross bars where the retrofits would actually mount.
Then, I drilled through the rack and pulled the wires up through and ran all the wiring on top (hoping to prevent any salt from getting on that). I simply inserted the entire rack inside of my hood and used a couple of big hinges in the back. I used plant tension hangers so that I could easily raise and lower the rack without it slamming shut on me.
When I would hinge it down over the tank, the bulbs would be just above the cross bars (maybe 2-3" from the water surface) and with it hinged up I had maybe 6-7 inches of clearance (the height of the rack with the bulbs on will be like 5-6 inches high). It's on an angle when it is open but if you think about reaching into a tank, your arm is almost always at the same angle.
waynesworld
Premium Member
If you have Norman show his pulley device we constructed you will see how we got his lights real close to the water.
waynesworld
Premium Member
Tiffany if you want to spend some time in the boro we could go over some different lighting I have a lot of examples to show you.
waynesworld
Premium Member
Just let me know when you want to come over you can give me a call at 4283262.
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