Lighting

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audifusion

Aquarium Advice Freak
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Dec 9, 2011
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Since I have never done a coral tank before I am unsure what specs I need for lighting.

My tank is 800 gallon,

8 ft x 4ft (front section)
7ft x 3ft ( side section)

30" depth with dual over flows.

I was talking to a guy at the lfs and he said metal halides are the best for hard coral and from what I've read, I need 3-5 watts per gallon.

I can get metal halide 400w or 1000w fixtures really cheap but they use a tonne of electricity

Any suggestions?

I have about 10 4 ft fluorescent light fixtures that I took down from a Reno that I was Hoping to re use and change out the bulbs for t5's,

looking forward to some suggestions !

Thanks!
 

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I also would say metal halides will be your best bet. the dimensions are just way too big for a standard fixture in my opinion plus you'll need the depth penetration. :)

Following your other thread by the way, excellent work on the tank, I absolutely LOVE the rocks on the outside of the tank!
 
Well If you have the cash you can do LEDs. Like those led cannon things. I would say maybe 8 of them
 
If you are like me, on a budget I got metals for the corals and dawn/dusk and moonlight I got leds. You should get lumen elite or lumen max to spread the metal light around. You will need at a minimum of 4 for the 8 feet length.
 
This is great. I'm loving the feedback.

so, how many metal halides should I get ,

I can get 400w and 1000w light fixtures w bulbs for pretty cheap.

I was thinking 6-8 400w, does that sound like enough?

I'm not sure if I'll have space to do any fluorescents if I put up that many halides but I could probably work something out with compact fluorescents or leds where they could hang in between the halides and have it all on a timer for the dusk/ dawn moonlight ( really don't know what these mean yet)
 
Dawn/dusk are lights used to transition from night time to the metals. They are the actnic lights on all in one light fixtures. This is done so the only light the fish seeing isn't only the bright daylight metals.

Moonlights are almost always blue leds that give the tank some light during the night
 
i would use 8 lamp t5 fixtures. they will definitely work well for you. you could use two 4' fixtures over the 8' side and stagger eight 5' lamps on the 7' side.
you could keep whatever you wanted under that lighting for much cheaper than thousand watt halides. moonlights are unnecessary.
 
in my opinion MH are old technology, LEDs and T5hos can penetrate the depth of that tank. T5s with good bulbes and over driven can be over soemthign that is deeper then 30" which is in 1000watt MH territory. LEDs with a 40 degree optic will also be able to penetrate that also. MH are not the best for growign hard corals and it has been proven that LEDs put out better PAR and PUR numbers. T5s also produce the same growing numbers as a MH with less wattage and they can make your tank look great with the different spectrum lamps you can have, where MH its just a single spectrum that you are relying on to target the coral as well as your personal needs.

over a tank liek your to grow hard corals you will need tons of light, which will pull your electricity bill through the roof, your best bet is to go with LEDs or even t5hos over MH
 
Thanks for the input on the t5 lighting.

going the t5 route should save me quite a bit in electricity consumption.

any idea what kelvin ratings I should get?

I have about a dozen 4ft fixtures I can use.

How high above the water should I hang them?
 
i would place them 6 inches above, look into ATI t5 lamps i would go with 4 blue plus, 2aquablue special 1 purple plus and an actinic per 8 lamp fixture, or you could go the route mr.x did and go 3 aqua blue special 1 purple plus and 4 blue plus and look into tekk or icecapp reflectors for each lamp if you are goign to use the fixtures you have
 
if your fixtures are individually reflected, you can use them the way they are. t5 configurations are up to the individual for the most part. the most important bulb in my opinion is the ATI blue plus. you gotta have a few of them in each fixture. get them and put them up against any blue bulb and you'll see why.
i would go with high end lamps like ATI, and Giesemann.
 
doug you always forget KZ, its beed said that KZ put out the same PAR as ATI but their coral light I has been claimed to put out the most PAR of any day light lamp, but it is rated at 10000k where as their coral light II is 14000k and ATIs aquablue is 12000k
 
Do you guys know anything about LEDs ?

Seems to be alot of conflicting information online.

from what I've read about them, LEDs don't have the higher k ratings ( over 10 000k) but they still seem to work well.

could I not just use a bunch of ultra bright white led fixtures and some deep blue ones?

There's led bulbs that basically look like pot lights( they have 48-102 LEDs per bulb) .

As far as the 8 lamp fixtures go,

Would this work, http://www.sunleaves.com/detail.asp?sku=SPG108

I have a friend with a few of these that he wouldn't mind parting with.
 
Hydrofarm T5 4FT Designer Fluorescent Grow Lights - Plantlighting Hydroponics & Grow Lights

heres a good thing for pricing, and i know they hydrofarms are a good quality fixture, i have a 4x24 over mine and mrx is used the 8x54 over his old one 150g and now his new 265g

as for LEDs go they are totally capable and just because the one bulb doesn't have anythign over a 10000k doesn't mean you can't get the light spectrum you're looking for. if you're up for DIY LEDs then look at www.rapidled.com they have great prices and the LEDs they use are proven to put out the PAR, and it all depends what types of corals you want to grow, SPS and clams you should aim for 1 LED per 16-18 square inches for LPS and softies aim for one per 19-22 square inches
 
1 LED covers a, 16" square area? Are you sure about that? That doesn't sound right. No fixture to date has a single LED covering that kind of space.


i do agree that the hydrofarm fixtures are excellent for your application.
 
1 LED covers a, 16" square area? Are you sure about that? That doesn't sound right. No fixture to date has a single LED covering that kind of space.


i do agree that the hydrofarm fixtures are excellent for your application.

Would one of the hydrofarm 8 light fixtures work well on my 5 foot 120 gallon tank?
 
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