Updating lighting possibly

Y

Yinzer

New member
I won some $$ on the superbowl and want to update my lighting but am clueless as to how to go about it. I have a canopy with 6 power compacts in it running on 3 ballasts. I want the best lighting for my coral. My questions maybsound dumb but bare with me.....
1. Do metal halide or t5's use balasts and can I use the ones I have??
2. What do I do if i have a canopy? Can I use it or do i take it off? It is an enclosed acrylic tank with the holes at the top and is quite ugly without the canopy.

I will post a couple pics of my lighting and top of tank. Any input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!!
 
What brand of light kit and or Brand of ballast. There are a ton of lighting options depending on what you want to spend and plan on keeping in the tank. I'm plenty happy with t5 kits on my main tanks as halides add too much heat

And yes they use ballasts I run 2 icecap 660s on my t5. As mentioned depending on the ballasts you have will help in what you can get
 
MH - You may need to add some fans to keep heat down. You can probably figure out a way to mount one inside the hood. Janice had some posted on here. HQI Double ended pendants if I remember right. You can most likely leave one of the PC's as an actinic only.

T5 - Less heat. More bulbs needed to get good coverage. May be tougher to mount inside the canopy because of room, will know more when you put up pics and size of tank.

Most likely, your ballasts will only work on power compacts, but you can check the ballast to see.
 
Ok, here it goes..
These are what I have 4 96 watt 50/50 power compacts and 2 blue actinics
lights.jpg


Here is the top of the tank under the canopy
top.jpg


Here are my ballasts...
2 Custom Sea Life, Inc. 2 lamp 96 watt ballast assembly WH5 1.45 amp 120 volt 174 watt
1 Sunpac 120 volt 96 watt 2 lamp ballast assembly
ballasts.jpg


Here is the top of tank with canopy closed---very bad photo from my phone
tank.jpg


as far as what I am looking for..something that has intense lighting for softies, zoas and frogspawn etc..

I am looking to spend about $400-500 but have no idea how to go about it with my current setup.

thanks
 
Re: Updating lighting possibly

I'm sure I can go look but is this a 48" tank?

Also is that aluminum foil? If so it's been mentionedthat it is worse to use as a reflector than nothing
 
its a little under 6 feet and yes, its foil, it was there when I bought it so I just left it. SHould I remove it?
 
That is a reason I am looking to upgrade, this tank was straight out of the 90's, I think it sat empty in a guys basement for a decade before I got it. I replaced all of the bulbs and one of the ballasts since I got it.
 
Re: Updating lighting possibly

Well so long as the inside of the stand is not lined with shag you should be ok.

If you are replacing I wouldn't touch the foil.
 
Ok, this would be my personal opinion, and others may not agree, but if it was my tank, if I were looking at keeping the corals you want and if those two sections of the top are removable, here's what I would do.

Choice #1:

Keep what you have.
Get some new reflectors for the power compacts.
Replace the bulbs with new ones.
Remove the two covers,

You will have enough light to keep what you want "right now anyway".


Choice #2:

Convert to t5's.
At least 3 but I'd do 4 bulbs minimum.
Use individual reflectors.
Still remove the two covers.
This will give you an option going to higher light corals later if you decide to.
 
Misled said:
Ok, this would be my personal opinion, and others may not agree, but if it was my tank, if I were looking at keeping the corals you want and if those two sections of the top are removable, here's what I would do.

Choice #1:

Keep what you have.
Get some new reflectors for the power compacts.
Replace the bulbs with new ones.
Remove the two covers,

You will have enough light to keep what you want "right now anyway".


Choice #2:

Convert to t5's.
At least 3 but I'd do 4 bulbs minimum.
Use individual reflectors.
Still remove the two covers.
This will give you an option going to higher light corals later if you decide to.
Click to expand...

I agree with Jesse. Unless you're looking to get into SPS, the light you have is actually fine. The drawback to PC lighting is that they produce almost as much heat as MH's do. I kept anenomes, some LPS, and any softy I wanted in my 120 I used to have and all I ran on it was PC lighting. Also, I'm not sure how much of an issue cost is as well. VHO lighting could also be an option. It would be somewhat cheaper than T-5, but probably not enough to justify going that way.
 
I am a big proponent of T5s, they are all I have ever used over my 75 and I can keep anything. The colors are amazing and the bulb choice/combinations are endless.

They do make T5 retro kits that will secure nicely in a canopy.
 
I love the icecap t5 retro prewire setups. They are 300$ for a 36" setup but thats a base, individual reflectors, ballasts, and end caps.. I have three of em and they work great. new bulbs are about 16.00 each.

You can get a 4 bulb setup
5 Pre-Wired T5 Retro - 46.5" 4 lamp - no bulbs for 390$ there about.

Also just updating your bulbs and reflectors would set you 100$ and then the rest on new coral!
 
AHDOnline said:
I love the icecap t5 retro prewire setups. They are 300$ for a 36" setup but thats a base, individual reflectors, ballasts, and end caps.. I have three of em and they work great. new bulbs are about 16.00 each.

You can get a 4 bulb setup
5 Pre-Wired T5 Retro - 46.5" 4 lamp - no bulbs for 390$ there about.

Also just updating your bulbs and reflectors would set you 100$ and then the rest on new coral!
Click to expand...


That's a lot of $$$ to put into updating something that given his stated preferences, really doesn't need to be updated.

Just to put in in some perspective as far as MH is concerned...You could probably get a good used dual ballast, with decent (not good) reflectors for close to $150. Then you sink another $55-80 on two new bulbs and you're looking at close to the same $300 for MH. I love mine, and will never use anything but a metal halide, just because I love the shimmer in the water, and I've also read a lot of people who have t-5 displays and MH frag tanks that say that their stuff colors up even more under the MH. People definitely get good color and growth under both though. If you watch tank of the month's, it's probably close to a split as to whether they're running halide or T-5.

Heat was never an issue for my 120 (2x250w MH, 2x110 vho) unless the house didn't have AC. I had a fan mounted in one side of the canopy, and a vent on the other side, and that was enough to do the trick.
 
I agree, that's why i closed with putting 100$ into his current system would be better...

the RC sellers forum has some nice deals if no one local is ridding of anything.
 
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