Suggestions on lighting, please

[dheinze]

Hey all. I am starting to collect equipment for a 58g Oceanic tank. I am particularly interested in your suggestions about which lighting solution to choose. I am mostly interested in keeping soft corals, leather corals, and zoos...Not too interested in sps (yet). The tank is 36" long and 20" deep... My present options are:

4 x 95W VHO (would 3 work?)

4 x 39W t-5 (is that enough?)

MH lighting would be cool, but it gets costly if I have to purchase two pendants, and it seems that one pendant might have significant shadows at the edges (is this true?) the tank has no center brace, which is a plus in this area.

My last question would be...which is most cost effective in the long run (assuming I don't go sps) as far as bulb replacements go? From my research it seems that t-5 might be the cheapest to keep up...Is this right?

Thanks for your answers and time, very much appreciated!

 

[fishbaiter]

I have the exact same tank and livestock desire. Presently I'm temporarily using 3 96x pc lights in a 48" fixture. Everything is doing well in the tank. However, I am getting the 36 inch Outer Orbit 1x150W 10K HQI-MH 1/ 2x96W Dual Actinic & 4 Lunar Lights bit which lists for $419 at Marine Depot but getting it for $340 NIB shipped from a member of this forum.
I would love to do 2 MH but that's big bucks and only a few reputable companies make them for a 36" tank.
But for our purposes it is perfect plus you can still do some SPS if you wanted...

It's a thought bud....

 

[hahnmeister]

That T5 setup would be perfect. 4 bulbs will give you a good start, but if you can, get a 6 bulb unit. The Tek 6 bulb units allow you to turn off the front and back bulb and only use 4 bulbs if you so desire...and the extra 2 bulbs will be ready to go should you decide to make the push for SPS and clams...or other higher light species. OR, having those 2 extra bulbs allows you to run a combo of bluer bulbs and still have as much output as if you were running a mix that was more 'daylight'. For instance, you could run a couple GE 6500Ks for output, and a couple blue+ bulbs to suppliment this...but it might still be too 'yellow' for some. So you might want to run a mix of 11,000K aquablue bulbs, actinics, and blue+ bulbs...meaning a lower intensity. Those extra 2 bulbs allow you to add a couple bluer bulbs in and keep the intensity. Thats what I did. I have a 40B with a 6 bulb tek over it (2x11,000K aquablue, 2xblue+, 2x actinic+). Its easily enough to run a 58 or 65g with, but my tank is for SPS frags and clams...so it works perfectly. I dont think I would find such a nice balance of color if I had only 4 bulbs to work with...as is, the tank looks like a very bright 14,000K.

 

[fishbaiter]

My buddy went with an 8 - T5 from ebay for a reasonable amount and he had the moonlights added to it as well...