Need advice on a lighting system...

[Willow]

I'm new here (but I have been lurking for a little while) .. and have a silly question.. which lighting system is better in your opinion?

This is going on a 50 gallon tank.. which is an odd sized tank (48" long X 15" wide X 16" deep). We are thinking about possibly having corals at a later date.. right now the tank is in need of a good cleaning.. I have aprox. 60 pounds of live rock waiting in a rubbermade tote for it.. just need to start assembling things!

http://www.reeftanksupply.com/product_info.php?products_id=376

or

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=018&sspagename=STRK%3AME WA%3AIT&viewitem=&item=280039241570&rd=1&rd=1

Thanks!

[don-n-sa]

Actually 48" is not a odd size, it is pretty common.


Between those two lights I would go with the T-5's over Power compacts , however with T-5's the reflectors are very important, the should be indivual for each bulb and highly reflective. I can't tell by the picture if they are in that light , but I don't think they are or else they would advertise it.

If I was going to get a T-5 fixture it would be one of these....
http://www.reefgeek.com/products/categories/lighting/104192.html

[GaryP]

When you say that you are going to have corals, the question then becomes what kind of corals?

SPS and some clams will require a combination of Metal Halide and VHO fluorescents.

LPS will probably be happy with just a combination of fluorescent bulbs.

A lot of soft only require smaller intensity of lights.

Some corals such as sun corals and some leathers require no light at all.

So, I guess my suggestion is to figure out what kind of corals you will want to stock and then go from there. Tank depth has a lot to do with the intensity of light because some light wave lengths are absorbed quickly by water. Your tank is fairly shallow and so that will mean that your lighting requirements will be less then a deeper tank.

HTH

[don-n-sa]

One other thing that I must add here though. Easily one of the most common mistakes that we do when just starting out is to underlight our tanks. In my expirience, and I have just about every kind of lighting there is, you just can't beat halides...they have their issues, but they are more than worth it.

Anyway, instead of worring about upgrading later get one of these fixtues and be done with it. Its got the best of both worlds IMO. Halides and T-5's

http://www.reefgeek.com/products/categories/lighting/104489.html

[Willow]

Actually 48" is not a odd size, it is pretty common.


Between those two lights I would go with the T-5's over Power compacts , however with T-5's the reflectors are very important, the should be indivual for each bulb and highly reflective. I can't tell by the picture if they are in that light , but I don't think they are or else they would advertise it.

If I was going to get a T-5 fixture it would be one of these....
http://www.reefgeek.com/products/categories/lighting/104192.html

I know 48" is pretty standard.. it was the 15" X 16" that is off.. I think thie was a custom tank and stand... Not sure but it just doesn't match other 50 gallon tank dimensions I have come across...

[Willow]

When you say that you are going to have corals, the question then becomes what kind of corals?

SPS and some clams will require a combination of Metal Halide and VHO fluorescents.

LPS will probably be happy with just a combination of fluorescent bulbs.

A lot of soft only require smaller intensity of lights.

Some corals such as sun corals and some leathers require no light at all.

So, I guess my suggestion is to figure out what kind of corals you will want to stock and then go from there. Tank depth has a lot to do with the intensity of light because some light wave lengths are absorbed quickly by water. Your tank is fairly shallow and so that will mean that your lighting requirements will be less then a deeper tank.

HTHYeah.. see.. that's the problem.. we aren't really sure what we want.. I know some of the more expensive "rare" corals are going to be way out of our price range... we weren't planning on going too fancy with this tank.. our 29 gallon is going to be for seahorses (at least that's the plan)... and in this tank I know we are planning on a bubble anemone along with clown fish.. so I think we will end up creating the rest of the tank around those two...

I wasn't sure if the shallowness of the tank would be a plus or not.. the woman we got it from kept insisting it was a 70 gallon... I did the math though.. and there is NO WAY that puppy is a 70! .. Luckily we only spent $150 on the tank with stand... so I guess it could be worse...

[Willow]

One other thing that I must add here though. Easily one of the most common mistakes that we do when just starting out is to underlight our tanks. In my expirience, and I have just about every kind of lighting there is, you just can't beat halides...they have their issues, but they are more than worth it.

Anyway, instead of worring about upgrading later get one of these fixtues and be done with it. Its got the best of both worlds IMO. Halides and T-5's

http://www.reefgeek.com/products/categories/lighting/104489.html Would halides be overkill on a tank that's only 16 inches deep?.. if we go with a 3 to 4 inch sandbed.. that only leaves about a foot of waterspace...

[JeremyGlen]

If your tank is that shallow and your worried about it, get a fixture that has 2 150w halides with t-5 actinics. At that depth, the 150w halides should be strong enough for just about anything you want to grow.

[don-n-sa]

SPS and some clams will require a combination of Metal Halide and VHO fluorescents.

hmm...the requirement of VHO's, I don't buy this comment, LOL Gary. :P

I think he meant the combination of halides and actinic supplentation, which can come from VHO's, PC's, T-5's and now LED's, shoot you could go with NO floresence if you wanted.

Sorry Gary, you aren't wrong very often so I had to raise the flag. :D

[don-n-sa]

If your tank is that shallow and your worried about it, get a fixture that has 2 150w halides with t-5 actinics. At that depth, the 150w halides should be strong enough for just about anything you want to grow.

I agree, this is good advice also

here is another option
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Product/Prod_Display.cfm?pcatid=12779&N=2004+113352

[Willow]

If your tank is that shallow and your worried about it, get a fixture that has 2 150w halides with t-5 actinics. At that depth, the 150w halides should be strong enough for just about anything you want to grow.

I agree, this is good advice also

here is another option
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Product/Prod_Display.cfm?pcatid=12779&N=2004+113352
Thanks.. I had sorta been looking at those... so what is the biggest difference in the compact bulbs vs. "regular" bulbs?

[GaryP]

hmm...the requirement of VHO's, I don't buy this comment, LOL Gary. :P

I did mean actinic fluroescents. Try growing SPS without them. You'll have the best collection of brown corals you have ever seen.

[GaryP]

Yeah.. see.. that's the problem.. we aren't really sure what we want.. I know some of the more expensive "rare" corals are going to be way out of our price range... we weren't planning on going too fancy with this tank.. o
Fancy and expensive aren't necessarily the same thing. There are a lot of SPS corals that you can get frags for free or next to it from the members here. Even some of the rarer varieties. Some of the SPS varieties grow like weeds and need to be fragged regularly. There isn't much of a market for these and a lot of folks will give them to newbies as a freebie. I wouldn't recommend starting with an SPS tank though. They really aren't for beginners, to be honest, and if cost is a major concern then that will be an issue with an SPS tank too. I would however suggest you design your system with the capability to expand to handle SPS eventually. That seems to be the natural progression of things.

[TexasTodd]

All good advice.

I'd go with the t-5 setup Donny suggested.(the first one) Probably your best bet and in a tank that shallow you should be ablet to keep just about anything you want.

Todd

[caferacermike]

I was waiting to respond until I saw what Gary just said. Fancy and expensive don't necessarily go hand in hand. I've gotten some very rare pieces just for showing up and meeting some members.

I did not have MH when I started with my 75g. Who would ever want to keep SPS I thought, It's so expensive. It doesn't grow. It doesn't move around like LPS or softies. Blah. Well I did switch up to 2x 150w MH for my tank but the fixture had horrible reflectors. Just thought I was doing somethign good for the tank. And at the same time a fellow reefer sent me home with 10 frags of SPS. Ok so now I have some SPS and great lighting right? Wrong. Nothing seemed to perk up. One day I went ahead and got all new lighting, 2x 250w 14K MH and 200w full actinic PC. Now my tank is exploding. I've been getting great hookups on SPS and I'm fully addicted.

So always prepare for that day when you are gifted an ultra rare piece and don't have the right set up for it. All in all I spent close to $1,800 on lighting and could have done it right the first time for about $500.