Help with lighting for a newbie please

[dheck]

I have been doing a lot of research on lighting. I am completely new to the hobby and know almost nothing. I have a 90 gallon tank already and want to do a reef tank. After looking at others reef tanks I talked to a member on here and I loved his tank. He was kind enough to point me in the right direction. He told me what I would need to mimic his lighting and this is what he suggest to get the look and to support the corals I wanted.

dual 250w MHs, Dual 110w VHO Actinics and 2x54w T5 HO Ultra Blues

Now my question is. Can I use something like whats in the link I have listed below and just add the T5 HO Ultra Blues to it and achieve the same look? Are the PC lights going to give me a lot different look than the VHO Actinics?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...MEWA:IT&ih=003

I guess I don't know enough about lighing to know the difference between the VHO and PC lighting and the look they will give me.

Thanks!

[roka64]

Wow, I like the design of that fixture and the price seems really low. The MH will provide your "daylight" and the Actinics will provide your blue spectrum. Other than it not having a name brand, that I could see, you may want to wait for others, who have that same fixture to chime in. I have found lighting is not one place you want to go cheap....

[dheck]

I really liked that fixture as well, I just don't know how well it would work for my application and if it's nice quality.

My other option is that I work for an electrical contractor. I am having our purchasing agent try to track down similar lighting. The only problem is that they would be for an industrial use and would probably take a lot of work to be mounted to the top of a fish tank. That is if they can even find anything similar.

[dheck]

Well suppose if no one has anything bad to say about it then I guess I'll order it and see how it works. I think I'll order some T5's as well. This will be good lighting for a 90 gallon with corals and what not correct?

[fijiwigi]

that price almost seems too good to be true the normal price is over double that for that amount of light output..... I would just suggest you research the seller I have been screwed once or twice buying stuff on the net and I am always very sceptical....

[Ziggy953]

Well I did a quick search on the net and found a few people that have the light fixture. Nobody seemed to complain about it. Will the company be around in 2 years? Can you get customer service from them if there is a problem? I don't know.

Like Scott said lighting is one of the things you don't want to go cheap on. I think if you are ok with the possiblilty of loosing out if the light craps out on you then I say go for it. You may end up with a great product that is very inexpensive and I'll get one myself!