WTB: 24" Sundial T5

[juliansolos]

Hello all!

I'm currently living in Virginia, but I will be moving back to north WV soon so Pittsburgh is considered "in the area". The tank has already been moved there and the first thing I'd like to do is upgrade the lighting.

Currently, the tank has one 24" Sundial T5 fixture providing 96 watts of lighting. I've looked into six bulb t5 fixtures and don't like the outrageous cost. A better idea IMO would be to buy a second Sundial T5 fixture and place them back to back to provide 192 watts of T5 lighting.

Anybody think this is a good idea? If you have a 24" Sundial fixture it would be a good excuse to upgrade.

 

[Stray32]

What are the dimensions of your tank? What kind of corals do you keep?

 

[juliansolos]

The tank has an 18"X24" footprint and is 24" deep. Right now I have:

two kenya trees
a bubble coral
an acan
a frogspawn
a favia
xenia
briarium. pink and green
green star polyp

and on a frag rack close to the light I have:

a birdsnest frag
a green digi frag
a scroll coral frag
a green slimer frag
a hydnophora frag

I'd like to get these hard coral frags off of the frag rack and onto the rockwork, hence the desire for better lighting. I'd also like to avoid metal halides because the cost of a chiller would kill me.

 

[bmiller1234]

What bulbs do you currently run? That's a really big push for 24" t5 in that depth but with the right bulbs you should be able to put some sps high. You could look into one of the small viper halides with the fan. Shouldn't need an chiller with maybe a single 150 de?

 

[juliansolos]

What bulbs do you currently run? That's a really big push for 24" t5 in that depth but with the right bulbs you should be able to put some sps high. You could look into one of the small viper halides with the fan. Shouldn't need an chiller with maybe a single 150 de?

I'm currently using 24W geissman bulbs. The sps on the frag rack I currently have are not a concern, they're practically 7 inches from the light. I do want to put them on the rockwork though. Is it more a matter of depth penetration than the raw amount of light you throw into the tank for keeping sps?

There is another fixture, the marineland pro series, that I'm considering. It has a 150W halide bulb and 4 actinic t5 bulbs on both sides. It's super expensive though, which is why I think it would be more economical to use two sundial fixtures.

 

[Stray32]

i would stick with T5's, thats all I have ever used and have had great success with them. If you are keeping SPS, I would get another 4-bulb fixture, and keep your SPS mid to high level. Sounds like a nice tank, post some pics when you get a chance.