Newbie Lighting Question...

[natblack]

Hi! I've got a newbie lighting question.
I have a 92 gallon all glass corner tank that I've kept freshwater fish in for the last 8 or so years. I had to break the tank down for a cross-country move, and instead of going back to my angelfish, I'm going to give saltwater a try.

I've been using the pie shaped glass canopy the tank came with and a 36" hood that houses 2 T8 bulbs in front, and a second, smaller 24" single bulb hood behind it for my freshwater setup. I like the clean look of the hood and want to try to avoid hanging anything from my ceiling and a lot of fixtures and so much light that I have planes landing at my house. This tank is in the office at the front of the house in a highly visible area so I'm looking for as uncluttered a look as possible.

I had a crazy thought of buying a VHO ballast kit that would run 4 bulbs, maxing out at 440 watts and fitting it to the 36" hood I have now. The interior dimension of the reflector is 5" and four T8 bulbs should (theoretically) fit in there. Does anyone know if there's a minimum distance that should be maintained between VHO bulbs? Will heat be an issue? Am I completely insane?
I'll take whatever lighting advice folks have to offer...

The plans for the tank include "The Package" from TBS and the life on the rocks and critters that come along for the ride and an as-yet-to-be-determined collection of fish. My focus will be more on the fish as opposed to adding more corals to what will come on the rocks. I just want to make sure that what does arrive is able to survive and thrive.

Thanks in adavance for the advice!
Natalie

 

[DarG]

You can't get 440 watts of VHO in a 36" hood. The 48" VHO bulbs are 110 watts each. The 36" or 24" or whatever your hood has the room for are lower in wattage. If you go with T5's, you can get more bulbs in the space. T5 bulbs are only 5/8" diameter. They do give off more light with individual reflectors installed for each bulb which range in width from about 2" - 3" each. So basically, the bear minimum you would need for width of your hood to house 4 T5's WITH individual reflectors would be 8". Ice Cap SLR reflectors are 2.5" wide each so 10" for those. Either way, you should have that type room available albiet maybe not in your existing hood. There are some fixtures that use T5 under a single reflector and they are still effective so you could possibly just do an easy retro if you didnt want to go all out with individual reflectors. Not as effective as individual reflectors though, to what degree apparently has not been documented.

Anyway, for flourescent lighting to retro into an existing hood or a different but still low profile hood to meet your requirements, T5 is going to be your best bet. Only thing I would personally be leary about would be using Ice Cap ballasts and overdriving T5 lighting that was retro'd into an existing perfecto or other plastic hood. Ice Cap ballasts work on T5 but they overdrive the lamps and increase the heat in doing so. Perhaps a standard T5 ho ballast would be a safer bet in that situation.

Others should chime in and be of more help.

 

[natblack]

Sorry, I mis-spoke... the kit I'm looking at would power a max of 440 watts...I'm not meaning that I can actualy get 440 watts into a 36" hood. Thanks for the advice on the set up, I'll have to look into the option of T5s.
With my odd shaped tank, I can accomodate 2 hoods on the canopy. One 36" x 6" and a second one behind it at about 24" x 6"... I'll have to figure out how much light I can fit into that space...
Natalie

 

[areze]

just a note, if youve used any copper based meds in the tank in the past year or 2, you could have problems going to saltwater in that tank. just FYI

 

[natblack]

Thanks for the heads up, luckily my angelfish were pretty damn healthy so I should be okay.
Natalie