boardsurfer
Aquarium Advice FINatic
Hi all,
Well I just bought some lights as an 'impulse buy'. Typically, my 'impulse buys' aren't too smart, but I couldn't pass this one up.
I was holding out to buy some lighting for my 125gal tank. It's been FOWLR for almost 2 years, and since it's doing so well, it's time to jump to REEF! I was actually waiting to get LED's, or was really looking to buy a new T5 fixture, possibly 8x39watt. But I have this Craigslist app that someone else on here suggested and it pinged me when a guy was selling his T5 fixture for $115!
It's an 8-bulb 80watt per bulb fixture. So that's 640 watts, wow. I had a coralife lunar aqualight 48" 4x65 watt light fixture from my old 55gal on my tank for the last 2 years. And now I have this WHOPPER of a light emitting heat & light.
So my question is this- I don't want to shock my tank with so much light at once. I've cut some screen and put over the tank (3 layers of it). And I plan on only using actinics for 2 to 3 days, then putting all the lights on after that. Then I'll remove each layer of screen every 3 days or so.
1.) Does this sound like a good plan, or do you think this will still shock my system?
2.) Is it okay to lay the light fixture on the glass top I have instead of using the "legs" to hold up the light? It won't fit in my cabinet top with the legs on it. But if it were laying on the glass, it will.
Bad photos from phone but here you go:
Before:
After (all lights):
Actinic:
Well I just bought some lights as an 'impulse buy'. Typically, my 'impulse buys' aren't too smart, but I couldn't pass this one up.
I was holding out to buy some lighting for my 125gal tank. It's been FOWLR for almost 2 years, and since it's doing so well, it's time to jump to REEF! I was actually waiting to get LED's, or was really looking to buy a new T5 fixture, possibly 8x39watt. But I have this Craigslist app that someone else on here suggested and it pinged me when a guy was selling his T5 fixture for $115!
It's an 8-bulb 80watt per bulb fixture. So that's 640 watts, wow. I had a coralife lunar aqualight 48" 4x65 watt light fixture from my old 55gal on my tank for the last 2 years. And now I have this WHOPPER of a light emitting heat & light.
So my question is this- I don't want to shock my tank with so much light at once. I've cut some screen and put over the tank (3 layers of it). And I plan on only using actinics for 2 to 3 days, then putting all the lights on after that. Then I'll remove each layer of screen every 3 days or so.
1.) Does this sound like a good plan, or do you think this will still shock my system?
2.) Is it okay to lay the light fixture on the glass top I have instead of using the "legs" to hold up the light? It won't fit in my cabinet top with the legs on it. But if it were laying on the glass, it will.
Bad photos from phone but here you go:
Before:
After (all lights):
Actinic:
Last edited: