Opinions on lights please

ReefWifey

ReefWifey

New member
Hey all,

Here's the sitch: 18g, about 18 inches high. I'll have mostly zoas, with a LPS or two perhaps, a few softies. My zoas are now under 48w of 50/50 PC lighting. I don't want to burn them up, or have it so they ALL have to be at the bottom of the tank, so I'm wondering if I should put PCs on the 18g instead of halides. Here's what I'm looking at:

1)Aqualight Pro - 150W 10000k HQI MH, 2X65 Actinic 03 PC

or

2)Current USA Orbit - 2x65W - PC 1-Dual Daylight, 1-Dual Actinic

both have lunar lights.

Do I need to go with a MH on a 18g tank that isn't gonna have SPS? Will I end up burning up my zoas? And will just PCs be enough for good growth and color?

Opinions, suggestions? Thanks!
Kam :bounce3:
 
Go with the MH. If you acclimate them properly you will have no problems. Your corals will love you for it, and you will LOVE the look your tank gets. Trust me on this one. :)
 
IMO the 2*65W PCs would be good enough for an 18 gallon softy tank. Have you considered VHOs?

The MH and PC combo would bring you to about 15.5 watts/gallon, which is definitely overkill.
 
I also wanted to add that using the MH alone, with no supplement is also an option. That would probably be the one I would choose, but you didn't give that option :)
 
Cowcio - Well, I originally looked at the Sunpod with either 70W or 100W. It doesn't have any actinic bulbs, just the blue and white lunar leds, and I figured zoos would need more blue?
 
Go with MH for sure... you will most definitely be glad you did. The colour change is just stunning... take our word for it ;)

Go with a 20k bulb though for sure.. or something like 14k. For what it's worth I've got a standard 20g tank with a 150w HQI (DE) with 20k bulb over it, and I love it.. the zoos have damn good colour and the growth is great. You'll be glad you went with halides...
 
I have to disagree with the MH. I would go with the pc's. Does this tank have a sump on it? A halide is going to add a lot of heat to the tank, especially if you use it in addition to PC's.

If you do plan on going MH, I would skip the pc's and get a halide bulb in a 14 or 15 K. Can do 20K if you like the look, but IMO I don't like everything in the tank to look blue, just the blue stuff should be blue :lol:

BTW, how wide is the tank? If it's under 24", the halide might be a better option just because the pc's would hang over the edge. Don't fool yourself about the heat though, if you have a halide + pc's on an 18 gallon tank you are going to need some cooling or some sort, weather it be fans or whatever, just keep that in mind.

Good luck on the upgrade :thumbsup:
 
why 18g?? :confused: sounds like kinda an oddball size. you could just go with a 20g-high AGA. that would be perfect for a MH. but lighting is all about personal preference. there are people out there that swear up and down that their zoas look better under PC's than MH. ;)

but MH will give you more options with keeping other corals such as clams and sps if you ever decide to get a few in the future, or put your current light on a different sized tank down the road. if you got a fixed length PC fixture you would obviously have to go out and buy a new light for a new tank, or getting into some sps/clams.
 
Thanks for the input guys,

I already have the 18g. So sump. I was concerned with having to cool with the MH as well. My zoas get great color and growth under the PCs they are under currently (but its a shallower tank). In fact, some of my PEs can't seem to get far enough from the light and its only a 12g nano. I don't want to run a tank where only the bottom half is acceptable to zoas when zoas are primarly what I want to keep.

Hrrrm....decisions, decisions. Someone asked about VHO, I don't see any of those small enough for the tank, which is 20" wide.
 
Well 75 watt VHO is 24" and so are the 65watt pc fixtures. ( I believe that the bulb and mount is about 22" but all of the 65w pc fixtures are 24")

Is that supposed to be no sump? or so sump?

If you don't have a sump on this tank I wouldn't even think about the halide.

In reality, I know you already have the tank, but you can get a 20H for like $35 and have a more standard size that will give you more options.

Since VHO's were brought up, that's my personal prefference, nothing beats the look of VHO actinic IMO.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7282979#post7282979 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by CoralNutz
Well 75 watt VHO is 24" and so are the 65watt pc fixtures. ( I believe that the bulb and mount is about 22" but all of the 65w pc fixtures are 24")

Is that supposed to be no sump? or so sump?

If you don't have a sump on this tank I wouldn't even think about the halide.

In reality, I know you already have the tank, but you can get a 20H for like $35 and have a more standard size that will give you more options.

Since VHO's were brought up, that's my personal prefference, nothing beats the look of VHO actinic IMO.
Click to expand...

are you talking about the coralife PC fixtures?

I have one of the 24" 2x65w coralife fixtures collecting dust somewhere. The actual lighting hood measures 24", but you can get those adjustable legs with it, and you can fit the light on just about any width tank. I sat it on the sides of a 10g at one point, and it actually worked out pretty good. b/c the actual length of the bulbs inside the fixture is more like 18-20".

just wanted to throw that out there ;)
 
I realize that you can fit it on a smaller tank, just that it will hang over the edge... I too have used the 24" coralife fixture over a 20" tank, but it overhung the edges and looked funny.
 
Hehe, okay, I think i've narrowed it down (no sump):

Coralife Lunar Aqualight Deluxe - 65w actinic, 65w 10000k, lunar lights, all on seperate power cords for timing, built in ballasts with cooling fans. Length 24". With the adjustable legs the figure will hang over an inch on each end, but I'm guess the whole bulbs will be over the tank.

Now, if the length size is really of issue, current usa has a 20" fixture than has 2 40w bulbs, lunar, seperate cords, ect.

I like the tank, it fits right where I want it and has a nice stand that matches it. I'm leaning towards the PCs because I don't see doing much more than zoas in this tank. I may want to put some kind of lps in there that my clown will host in, since I've caused him a nervous condition and promised him a cushy pad. :)

Now if I can just decide if I need to put a protein skimmer on it or not! Thoughts? :)
 
FWIW, I really liked the moonlights in the coralife fixture. Here's what mine looked like on a 20" tank. (I think it was 20", it was a 15H)

I think you could skip the skimmer on it. Just keep up with water changes.

5818new_light1.jpg


One thing that I added to my sumpless nano, when I had it going, was one of those surface skimmers. I just hooked it up to a maxijet and it kept that surface film off of my water. Worked great too, even when the water would go down from evap it still worked great. Best $9.99 I ever spent on a reef tank.

http://www.marinedepot.com/md_viewItem.asp?idproduct=HG11006
 
Thank you CoralNutz, that tank looks like mine, perhaps its a 15g. Something like that, I know its 20" across. =P So, that brings me to my last (and final I hope) question: flow. I know the zoas like varied flow, I have no idea how that relates to gph though. I was looking at the maxi/mini/microjets. What size do I get? And is it worth getting 2 and putting them on timers to make the water go back and forth? And should I use piping or something to with holes in it to make spread out the flow? Those sea swirl thingies look cool, but a bit pricey for this sized tank.

Thanks!
Kam
 
Could put in a couple maxi - jets for flow. Could try to hide them in the rocks a bit to hide them, could be a pita to get them out for cleaning though. I would get the 900's instead of the 1200's. You will not have quite the same gph but they 900's are only 8watts. (can't remember what the 1200's were but I remember it wasn't worth the wattage/heat for the little extra gph output)

Otherwise you could try to rig up some cool closed loop with an external pump and a scwd. These plans use a mag drive, but I would not recommend one externally as they are known to leak.

http://www.melevsreef.com/closedloop.html

You could use an OR2500 or something and make one of these though. Might be kind of cool. Melev is on the boards here if you have any questions, he's a very friendly guy.


Also, you will see a hang on overflow on his tank to add the sump/fuge. If you are EVER going to add a sump to this system I would just drill it now and not trust one of those hang on overflows. I know there are several people that have used them for years without a problem, but there are also a lot of people that have had them lose syphon and over till the sump runs dry.
 
Oops... I hit the quote botton instead of edit and didn't realize till I double posted. Better get more coffee and wake up. :D
 
MH.......

I have a 400w 10K on a 60g prop tank that is 13"'s deep with no heat issues at all, no fans. I am sure a 150w will cause you no problems. The zoas LOVE it.

What lights are you running on your tank for your beauties Coralnutz? If not MH have you considered it?

;)
 
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