researching lighting

[teresad134]

i am in the research stage of a saltwater tank. my 55 gal has a canopy over the top of it and i like the looks of it. i want a fowlr for now but thought i might go ahead and save for a good lighting system that i might use later for corals. my question is can i get some kind of kit to mount in my canopy or would that get too hot? i just don't know a lot about the high powered aquarium lighting and would appreciate any advise.

 

[kau_cinta_ku]

you would want to get a retro setup rather than a fixture for putting it inside a canopy. I would suggest either a Icecap or tek T5HO from reefgeek as they also don't put out alot of heat but put out alot of light. if you go with the tek from reefgeek have them upgrade the reflectors to icecap reflectors for 2.00 more per reflector.

 

[DrBCool]

You can buy retro fit lighting systems that you can then mount in your canopy . You need to have some fans in to move air to keep the lighting system cool . Depending on what kinds of corals you are going to keep will be helpful in picking out a lighting system as well .

I have a 36 gal bow front with an open top and run a Coralife 30" ( my tank length , I know what an odd size . ) 2 X 65watt PC lighting system with 2 Blue Lunar LED's . I was running 2 Current bulbs in the system but my 10k / atinic split , started acting up so I went back to the Coralife 10k bulb on that side . The other bulb I am running is a dual atinic bulb from Current .

Currently in the tank I have 3 different Zoanthids , 1 Powder Blue Palythoia , 2 different Xenia , 6 different colors of star polyps ,yellow polyps , moon polyps, 7 different mushrooms , 3 different Ricordia , & a Kenya tree

All seem to be doing well with the lighting . The zoo's like lots of light so I have built a rock platform high in the tank for them to live . Probably get better growth with a metal halide than PC , but they seem to live fine under the PC's .

Once you start adding corals you won't want to stop ..

Hope some of this is somewhat helpful ....

 

[jecarl2]

I second reefgeek.com, I got a 4-54watt T5 retro. Great Service. Don't forget about a fan.

 

[teresad134]

thanks for all the info. do the lights mount onto the top of the wooden canopy? do you think i would be ok on heat with a fan?

 

[WaterKeeper]

You might start here--The Lighting thread