Lighting for a 20 gallon....

[drummerman2003]

anyone got high powered lights they would like to sell to a beginner to start our reef.... lol im lookin for some high powered lights, because our reef tank just finished its cycle, and im ready to make it reefy. my girlfriend is kinda excited too. but im kinda low on money, so i thought i would come here to check before spending the big bucks at the LFS. thanks!

[Scuba Dog]

drummerman2003
I dont have any at the moment but im shure some of the guys and galls in here can help you out, and if not, we could recomed some web sites that will sell stuff at a good fair price.....

[drummerman2003]

cool... any help counts

[thedogofwar]

I don't have anything for sale but I sure can tell you how to come up with about 150W of VHO for about $100. You'll need some DIY skills and a canopy to mount them in. I built a pretty simple yet appealling hood for my 29 for about maybe $20 and could be done by just about anyone with a hammer and saw.

[drummerman2003]

im a DIY guy... everything on my car is done by me, and so is alot of stuff in the house... so what do i need?

[thedogofwar]

cool, what kind of car?

Whats the dimensions of the tank? Is it only 24" in length? If so, that could be a problem for VHOs. as I believe 24" is the smallest anyone makes.

Thats alright, you could do some PC or even MH if you wanted. The only lighting I haven't realy keyed in on was the t-5.

I've got some info on DIY MH but you would want to add supplimental lighting because it would have to b the 6500K Iwaski which isn't the most appealing on it's own. Theres a bunch of pc retros and such, well get you hooked up. At the very least theres prob several of us that will keep our eyes open for a good deal.

let me know those dimensions.,

[drummerman2003]

i get those deminisions tonight...

and heres my car:

www.cardomain.com/id/67galaxie

[Scuba Dog]

drummerman2003
thats a way sweet ride!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Scuba Dog]

http://www.hellolights.com/22elarovhoba.html

Was looking around that link is to a 24in VHO system, short for very High output florsent....i think bulbs power cored and the eballast run about 97 bucks....but im shure there are some used set up's out there....the only bad thing i noticed about this ballast is i think it just runs two bulbs no matter what......and im not shure what the watt value is for 24 inch bulbs....

[Scuba Dog]

http://www.hellolights.com/cfnanbalkit2.html

Here is a retrofit power compact unit that looks good....

[drummerman2003]

i appreciate it, but i really dont know much about the lighting needed, so can you guys school me on whats what?

[Scuba Dog]

Normal output florsent lighting...good for actinics (blue colered bulb) its basicly to color up the tank and make your corals and fish colors pop out more.
VHO is a higher out put florsent system, a 4 foot long Noraml out put lamp is 40 watts....the same 4 foot long bulb in VHO is 110 watts...
Power compacs similar to VHO it puts out more light..
T5 High output florsent are great but pricy....
Metal halide is the holy grail of reef tank lighting...its intence and a bit expensive puts out a lot of heat, but you can keep any kind of coral...

If you just want to keep low light corals for a whyle go with VHO or power compacts. If you want the SPS corals basicly fuzzy sticks in neon colors and you want sweet looking maxima and craoacia clams then metal halide is the best option, but then youl have to invest in cooling fans and what not

[thedogofwar]

24" VHO's are 75W I use 2 of them with my 175W MH

and thats a good deal, just about the same as using a WH ballast which is what I was talking about.

I prefer VHO over PC. The color just seems so much better to me. The PC light pops, the VHO makes the corals pop IMO.

now I know this pic sux and you can't tell alot but you can see a little comparison between VHO and PC. The display is a 29G with VHO, the fuge is a 15G with PC. Both right at about the same watt/per gallon and kelvin. The PC appears much brighter, even more so in reality.

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/36585mini-tank-fuge001.jpg

P.S. Nice ride, you don't see many galaxies around. I've got a buddy back in illinois thats got a 65 comet with 1500k original miles. :eek:

[Scuba Dog]

Low light corals would be polyps like yellow polyps...star polyps....mushrooms.....zoanthids to an extent....then your soft corals the tree corals....the leatheres......
medium light corals would be the LPS corals like frog spawn, hammer torch and the brains.......
High light corals would be sps(short polyp stonies) youl hear names like montapora and acropora.....i have some pics of those corals in my thread of new frags.....
So basicly choose what kind of corals you like the best...learn about them by asking questions....then choose the light sceem...

[Scuba Dog]

The cool thing about that hellow light vho ballast is that it will power up 2 4 foot 110 watt vho's if you decide to bump up later on to a 4 foot tank in length, like a 55 , 75 , 90, 120 all have 4 foot lenghts, you would be able to use the same ballast....would be great for a atinics for a halide system later on

[Scuba Dog]

Yeah I would go VHO before i would power compact....the main reason is VHO actinics are way better...............