Lighting advice for a 110G Tank and Sump

[ragunnaath]

Hello All,

I'm in the process of converting my exisiting 110G FW tank to a SW setup.

As part of the equipment purchase, I'm getting confused on what to decide on.

I have a limited budget, so my choices are limited as well. However, I want to make sure that my choice of light would be practically suitable for my current and future plans with this tank.

I'm planning on starting with a FOWLR setup and eventually move to a Reef setup when I'm confident. So, the lighting that I buy now should be scalable to a reef setup in future as well.

My plan is to buy 2 x T8 55W housing and later add another 2 x T8 55W when I plan to move to Reef. Will this work? Or should I go for T5?
If 4 x 55W T8 tubes would be fine, then I would prefer this against T5 due to the cost factor.

Also, I plan to setup a 30G sump with a refugium section with some sand and Live Rock. Whill this require seperate lighting?


Regards,
Ragu

 

[Jimbo7]

T8's are pretty antiquated over on the dark side. (don't hate me mike)
It's good that you know where you want to go with this, but to make a truly educated decision, we need to narrow this down even more.
What kind of reef are you thinking?
Y/N
Soft Corals:
Zoanthids:
LPS:
Low light SPS (monti's, caps):
High light SPS (Acro's, chalices):

 

[cmor1701d]

T8 are fine for FO, but once you start talking about reef the sky's the limit. I'm on my fourth lighting system. I now have LED's equivalent to 400w MH lighting.

T5 would require more than 4 bulbs for that tank unless as Jim stated you only wanted mushrooms and other low light corals. You should be looking at a 6 0r 8 bulb T5 at a minimum. Even then you want to find a quality T5 unit with individual, higly polished, parabolic reflectors. The thin bulbs allows for this type of refelctor that can put 95% - 98% of the light into the tank.

Or you could do what I did. Take a hit on the light later when the tank has been running for a while and you had the time to save money for a good light system.

 

[Jimbo7]

Yea, I have the buy once, use for anything mentality on lighting and skimmers. Been through one too many crappy fixtures. But Cmor is right, it all depends on what time frames you are looking at, and what your pocket can handle. Answer my above questions and we can get you started.

 

[ragunnaath]

Cmor, Jimbo Thank you for the response.

I have never thought too deep into the type of Corals that I would want to house.

Infact, I was facinated by the Carpet Anemone and the Bubble Tip Anemone that I saw at the LFS. I wanted to start of with these once my FOWLR setup is stable.

Corals are next to impossible to get in India through a direct channel due to the restrictions on their sale.

As rightly said, I think its wise to start of with adequate lighting required for FOWLR tank and let the tank mature for a couple of months. In the meantime, I could save some funds for a proper buy as per the requirements.

As for your question Jimbo, I wouldn't want to limit myself at any point, I'd like to try new things during the course of the journey. But to start, these are some of the Corals I'd love to have in my tank.

Mushroom and Leather (Cladiella)
Mushroom (Actinodiscus)
Sea Mat and Button Polyps (Palythoa)
Finger Leather and Colt (Cladiella)

Your suggestions are much appreciated!

-Ragu

 

[pat8you]

If you really want to keep anemones then you will need a lot of light. For the bubble tip anemone you *might* be able to get away with 6 T-5s if you got it to sit on a high spot in the rocks. (keep in mind the anemone will choose where to stay not you. The move around until they are happy) Carpets need even more light then the bubble tips. I would not try to keep one unless you had 8 T-5s or metal halide lights in a tank that deep. Also keep in mind anemones in general can be a bit picky about your water stability so it is a good idea to have the tank up and running for 4-5 months before you put one in the tank. Especially if this is your first SW.

If you want to be able to upgrade your lights easily the best way to do that is build your self a canopy that you can put retro fit lights in. You can look at hellolights.com and they have 2 and 4 bulb T-5 retrofit kits. You can start with a 2 or 4 bulb fixture now and then buy another to add into your canopy later if you want to upgrade. Buying a fixture doesn't really give you a lot of flexibility to upgrade down the road with out selling it and just buying a whole new fixture.

The coral you listed that you wanted to start with are all good easy to care for choices and will only require low-med light.

 

[ragunnaath]

Pat, thank you for your suggestions!

I agree with you on the lighting requirement, I think the calculation works upto 6 x 80W T5. If I'm not wrong, my tank would require 450W of light @ 4.5W per gallon considering I would want to go for the corals that need high lighting.

I'll look into the option of DIY light canopy. I think its a good suggestion considering the benefits.

-Ragu

 

[ragunnaath]

Has anyone thought about LED lighting. I have been reading on some sites that LED lights can be used for a reef setup as well.

LED Saltwater Aquarium Lights - LED Saltwater Aquarium Lights

Any suggestions around this?

-Ragu

 

[ragunnaath]

Check this out....

YouTube - Aquarium Led Lamp - Best Light for your reef aquarium

Is this kind of lighting good enough!? If it has worked for 3 months on this tank as mentioned, I think thats enough time to prove it works right?

-Ragu

 

[cmor1701d]

I recently switched to the PacSun BT-EX fixtures (1 master, 2 slaves). The output is equivalent to 400w MH lighting. The control aspect is amazing. My lights slowly ramp up over 2 hours to 100% intensity and slowly ramp down to dusk. Then the moonlight setting kicks in, following the moon phase. Yes there are a few days of total tank darkenss using that mode.

As for anemones, please see my RULE # 9.

Seymour's rules for SW tanks.
Rule # 1. Nothing Good ever happens Fast in a salt water aquarium
Rule # 2. Don't add anything (supplements/chemicals/minerals)you don't test for first.
Rule # 3. PWC (Partial Water Changes) are your friend, and cure many ills.
Rule # 4. QT EVERYTHING before adding it to your tank (mandarins excepted, corals should be dipped)
Rule # 5. Use only RO or RODI water (either buy it or make it)
Rule # 6. All animal species live longer on a 30% reduced caloric intake. Only feed every other day at most (fish species dependant)
Rule # 7. Hyposalinity is the best, safest, and most effective treatment for marine Ich (IMHO)
Rule # 8. A Refractometer is a MUST HAVE, not a luxury.
Rule # 9. Anemones will never live anywhere near their normal (aprox 30 years) lifespan in a home aquarium. Leave them in the ocean.

I'll add to that carpet anemones are difficult, require a large tank that has been established for a reasonable (8 - 12 month minimum) time.

 

[Jimbo7]

Pat, thank you for your suggestions!

I agree with you on the lighting requirement, I think the calculation works upto 6 x 80W T5. If I'm not wrong, my tank would require 450W of light @ 4.5W per gallon considering I would want to go for the corals that need high lighting.

I'll look into the option of DIY light canopy. I think its a good suggestion considering the benefits.

-Ragu

Watts/gallon is kind of an antiquated idea for how to light a reef. It is a good starting point, but you have to consider a lot of other things.
Lets use a 50 gallon tank as an example:
If you have a power compact fixture with 4 96w bulbs over it, you are looking at around 7.7 w/g. Compared to a quality 250w MH fixture, you are looking at around 5.

I don't think anyone here would steer you onto that PC fixture before the MH. You have to take into effect their lighting intensity, and even though it may be less watts, it is more intense and has a higher PAR value. PAR gets tossed around in reef a lot, but it stands for Photosynthetically active radiation. It has been found to be the most accurate way to measure the amount of lighting used by corals and all types of photosynthetic plants/animals. Actually measuring PAR is difficult, there isn't really an economic meter for the individual, but some research around and you will be able to find others PAR values.

Sorry its early and I'm rambling.

Has anyone thought about LED lighting. I have been reading on some sites that LED lights can be used for a reef setup as well.

LED Saltwater Aquarium Lights - LED Saltwater Aquarium Lights

Any suggestions around this?

-Ragu

I just finished my LED light fixture last night as it were. Check my sig for details on the build, I custom made it. LEDs are awesome for smaller and shallower tanks, but once you get past a certain threshold, you are looking at huge amounts of money to be able to cover any given space. For the larger and deeper tanks, I still think MH are the best.

My brother wrote up a big thing on lighting somewhere, I'll see if I can find it for you.

 

[ragunnaath]

Thanks Cmor! Any idea if such a setup can be accomplished via a DIY approach? These units are not available in India and its going to cost a fortune if I'd have to import them.

LED light strips are available here, but not sure if its the same as ones used in a Pacific Sun product. Would you know of any specs that I should look out for?

Wow,.. those rules are precise and to the point! Thanks Cmor! Will surely keep them in mind!

-Ragu

 

[Jimbo7]

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f11/lighting-article-107658.html
It has information from, nice basic info to way too much info. lol.
Keep in mind its 2 years old, a lot has changed, but the basic overview and a lot of the things discussed there still apply.

If I were you, I would be shooting for something like 2 250w MH bulbs with 2-4 bulbs of T5 supplementation. But im a coral nut, 2 150w bulbs would be nice as well.

For DIY:
http://www.hellolights.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWCATS&Category=14

 

[ragunnaath]

Hey.. thanks Jimbo! Wow,.. you guys are awesome.. you're always on the fourm. I never expected such quick responses to my querries. Thanks a ton!

Now, your theory on the PAR thing went over my head... LOL! But yeah I did some reading and can see what you are saying and makes sense.

I checked out your DIY LED project and its NEAT! Well done! Dont you think I could acheive the same performance with more no. of LEDs stacked together? My tank is about 20" tall. It would have about 2" of sand. So, ideal water depth would be 18". What do you think?

Also, can you give me some specs on the LED that you have used? Can you point me to a link where I can get more details? I'd like to see if those are available here.

Thanks for all the help!

-Ragu

 

[ragunnaath]

Hey Jim... sorry for the premature question in my last post. I missed to notice your mention on the LED model. I've googled for 6 Cree XP-G and I'm already reading through the specs. Thanks again!

-Ragu

 

[Jimbo7]

No worries man. Let me know if you have any questions.
LED Drivers - Constant Current Drivers - LuxDrive - LED Supply.com
They have all the individual spec sheets for LEDs there. Common models people use are the XR-E's and then what I used, the XP-G's and the XP-E's.
Some good LED info:
Ultimate LED guide - Nano-Reef.com Forums
Tons of example builds:
Comprehensive DIY LED Project List - Nano-Reef.com Forums

As for if it would be the best option for you, I'm unsure. Anything above 30 gallons as it pertains to LEDs and I'm a little out of my league. There is a 75g build in those examples, you might want to look and see what they did. If you have any general questions, feel free though.

 

[Jimbo7]

No worries man. Let me know if you have any questions.
LED Drivers - Constant Current Drivers - LuxDrive - LED Supply.com
They have all the individual spec sheets for LEDs there. Common models people use are the XR-E's and then what I used, the XP-G's and the XP-E's.
Some good LED info:
Ultimate LED guide - Nano-Reef.com Forums
Tons of example builds:
Comprehensive DIY LED Project List - Nano-Reef.com Forums

As for if it would be the best option for you, I'm unsure. Anything above 30 gallons as it pertains to LEDs and I'm a little out of my league. There is a 75g build in those examples, you might want to look and see what they did. If you have any general questions, feel free though.

 

[Jimbo7]

I'm not sure why that double posted. Could someone delete that, and this?