Cant make decison on Lighhting..

[drillsar]

Im thinking about the 4 x 65 watt hood from coralife.

I was looking at metal halide or VHO but I would have to make a hood for it I dont know how I would make it..

Some people say MH would be to much and would heat my tank up is this true. I want a light but dont want to spend more than $350 on a lighting system.. Please help im going nuts..

If anyone has good plans on making a hood for a 55gal tank with pics would be great..

[wanareef]

I would go with the 250w Mh's myself. For those light loving corals. You can have sps to clams. If you do a search on hoods, you should ba able to come up with at least a doz styles. Mine is framed in 1x2's then just covered with 3/4" and painted. The top is 1/4" and I have two fans pointing in, below the lights. MH's are about 10" above the water and the actinics are just below. I used double-ended caps for the room.

hth :)

[drillsar]

Ok I found this from cool Cool Touch Lighting

Dual 175 Watt Metal Halide

Aquarium Canopy Light Kit

Lots of Room for Future Expansion

Full Hood Bulbs not included cost $300.00 Will this be to much for a 55 gal tank? What bulbs should I get and a good place to get them?

[Yellotang]

ushio 10kk bulbs from hellolights.com

[moonpod]

First off, what do you want to keep? Are you gonna get a full blown SPS, clam system w/a calcium reactor etc...? Or are you just looking at some softies, shrooms maybe an LPS. You CAN buy premade VHO, MH, T5 and PC hoods. Premium aquatics (for instance--there are other makers) sells PFO units that come complete. Whatever bulb combo you want. MH is a good solution for high light organisms, but is not necessarily the right answer for every hobbyist. And YES there are heat issues and sometimes bulb life issues and typically you will use supplemental lighting regardless. Before you take the plunge, SERIOUSLY evaluate what you want to keep and how far you're gonna go coralwise. The one thing I would say for sure is stay away from PC--while some people are happy w/them, the vast majority end up throwing 'em away.

[kaiyokanman28]

I'm having the same decision crisis about lighting my 46g...

I keep going back and forth from getting 2x96w PCs from AHsupply.com and the 250w MH from aquaticlighting.com. I DO know that I want to go retrofit in a scratchbuilt hood to try and save a couple of hundred bucks.

I keep looking at the heating issues with MHs and do NOT want to drop the money into getting a chiller right now. I'm going to be starting out with softies, shrooms, and maybe a leather or two, but may decide later to keep some SPSs.

If I go with the 250W, I would be getting a 12K bulb, and was hoping that that would be all I needed for the lighting...but then I was worried about evenness of light distribution, if that's even a valid concern, across the tank. Hence, the appeal of having 35" long 96W PCs, probably of the 50/50 variety.

Basically, for me to go over to the 250W MH, I need advice and assurances that going with the MH alone, using 12K bulb, is all I'll need to do since I don't want to get into MH AND PC or VHO to supplement the MH adding another couple of hundred dollars to the lighting needs.

Thanks for posting this thread...I need the same kind of advice.

Cheers!

Andy :wildone: