What kind of light for a 20L

[reef_dude76]

Just as the title says, what are you all using to light a 20L tank? I am starting the "thinking" stage of a 20L to serve as a propigation tank for coral frags from my 180 gallon sps reef. Most fixtures and retrofits are either 24" or 36". Anyone know of 30" fixtures?

 

[Pandafish]

Coralife makes this 30" :

65 watt 10,000K and 65 watt True Actinic 03 Blue straight pin base compact fluorescent lamps
Two 3/4 watt Lunar Blue-Moon-Glow LED lamps
Three on/off switches with three 8-foot power cords for separate timers
Built-in ballasts
Two cooling fans
Sleek aluminum housing
Highly-polished reflector
Acrylic lens cover

Running this on my daughters 20L Nano and it works great and the Moon LEDs look great.

Aqualight 30"

SunPaq also makes a 30" with Lunar Lights

But for a prop tank you might want to go with Metal Halide
Hang on back MH

 

[10" Red Devil]

It all depends on what corals you want.

I would think twice about compact flourescents, they just dont look that good. They kind of wash crap out. I would look at a T5 setup before a compact flourescent setup. Also Halide is a good option, but one thing that sucks about halide is that it only illuminates a 16" x 16" section and a 20 long is 30", this is where a 30" T5 setup would be handy. Also you could consider doing some sort of dual Halide setup. Of course you could do hight light stuff in the middle and then moderate to low light on the outside to the edges of the 20long if you just want one halide.

Good luck with whatever you decide!

 

[auntievan]

reef_dude76 I'm sorta in the same predicament. I have a 30 gallon...30" long by 18" deep by 13" high that I am going to order a Sunpod for. I've seen the lights on other tanks which to me are beautiful and I think I will be able to keep the love lighters in the center. Right now I've just got a 24 inch power quad by Coralife that I borrowed on the tank.
Mary K.

 

[reef_dude76]

One thing I have considered is a four bulb VHO setup. I found a 24" retrofit from hellolights that will put out 300W. Essentially, I will be propigating sps prunings as well as LPS.

 

[reef_dude76]

Those of you out there with 20L's what are you using?

 

[seldon]

I setup a 20L to cure some live rock in and just for the hell of it I stuck one of the above HOB Halides on it and it didnt do too bad of a job. Ill post some pics later when I get home from work. I was thinking about building a hood with a 250w halide and 2 x 24" vho bulbs. I already have the spare halides lying around the house, but hellolights.com has a vho ballast for 2 24" bulbs for 35 dollars:

http://www.hellolights.com/22elarovhoba.html

or a whole kit for 64:

http://hellolights.com/2laaroasbaki.html

Good luck.

Seldon

 

[i8chicken]

I've got a 29, which I think is the same length as a 20 long, just a bit taller. I am using this light:

http://www.marinedepot.com/aquarium...pod_powerpaq_hqi_lamp_lunar_light.asp?CartId=

It fits the tank perfectly.
The 150 watt double ended metal halide puts out really nice light in the center. The ends are not lit as brightly, so this might work out better for any LPS you would have in there.

Mine came with a 14K bulb, I think. It has a bunch of moonlights, too, but I only use half of them.

 

[artooman]

I have heard good things about the Sunpod. This one should work for your tank.

30" SunPod 1x150w 14K HQI-MW w/ 6-Blue & 6-White Lunar Lights

If you get one, let us know how it works out. I will be getting one soon on my new Aquapod.

 

[seldon]

Sorry it took so long, but here is the pic of the tank.

http://img74.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img12541km.jpg

 

[BMcCoy]

I am using the 30" aqualight. It looks great and all of my corals,including lps and sps are doing great. Mh is nice, but cost WAAAAAYY too much.


Ben

 

[Gordonious]

Please forgive a real newbie, but I have two 20longs back to back, well there is 4.5" inbetween. I am just starting to get into corals and was wondering if I could place my mini aqualight from coral life at one end and a 18,000K 20W power-glo florecent bulb from hagen just in an all glass hood strip above the whole thing. This of course would be just for one tank, the other FOWLR.

Secondly, would acylic between the bulbs and the water kill lighting horribly?

Jon

 

[Gordonious]

What does everyone think about these? http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Produ...ll&Ntx=mode+matchallpartial&Np=1&N=2004&Nty=1 For someone that could not afford a more expensive set up would they work decently?

 

[SVXH6]

if your gonna go T5's get a setup or retro with individual reflectors..

 

[Gordonious]

What if I could get that set up in a 20" for less then $50? I don't think I could beat that anywhere. Unfortunately cost is a huge factor for me. :-(

Jon

 

[M270]

How much is the 150W sunpod?