Satellite lighting?

[trr8288]

I was looking at a 48" 4x65 Watt Current USA PowerCompact Dual Satellite Fixture is this light any good here is the Current USA page: http://www.current-usa.com/satellite.html and here is a site that is selling it the cheapest I have seen: http://www.saltysupply.com/product-p/cu01016.htm If anyone knows the quality of these lights and whether it's worth buying please let me know.

[snagged by reef]

go with t5's. i promise. i had the Sat Power Comp amd thought they were great until i bought t5's. suprised that all the people that looked at this thread didnt comment about power compacts. come guys, he's just starting. we dont want him to make the same mistakes alot of us had. i wish i had kown about t5's b4 i started my tank last year. or for that matter, more money and you can get the MH for all of u MH fans out there. not trying to start a debate, just letting u know that you dont want power compacts........oh, yeah, thats jut my opinion.....good luck!

[SJGreene]

I can't speak to t5's, but regarding the Satellite Fixtrue, I have this exact one (4x 65W) and it's alright. The one thing I don't like about it is that about a year after I bought it, I had to replace one of the ballasts. About six months later I had to replace the other ballast and the moon lights. Plus, now after two years, the fan is a little loud.

[cd77]

How large is the tank? How deep? Most importantly, what do you plan to keep in the tank?

[jgiannini]

FWIW...I was going to go the PC route, but on advice from other people (and reading other forums) I went with a MH and T5 combo. I think with the T5's you get more lighting bang for your buck versus PC. Just try to get individual reflectors for the T5's so you get better light reflection. But I think we should probably get the answer to cd77's question about tank size and depth before making any specific recommendations.

[snagged by reef]

bump

[h20poloman2]

definitely depends on what you want to keep. PC is definitely a cheaper route to go on lighting but if you want to see better color or a shimmer effect than you should look into T5 or MH lighting options. I had the Sunpaq retro kit on my last 240 as I had moved from a FOWLR into a reef but mainly just keeping softies and easier corals that don't need a ton of light. I can tell you that having a different tank that had MH on it with PC supplement actinic lighting the colors definitely did not "pop" nearly as much with just pc lighting. I'm going to be running 4 175w MH on my new 240 that will have the Iwasaki 15k bulbs and then run 3 actinic pc's in addition to lunar lighting. The 15k bulbs have received some great reviews so I'll save some on energy by not running 250's. Overall, I've been pleased by Current's quality to cost on their products.

[sruiz]

so much good advice here. You need to take a step back and ask your self some questions.
How much money/budget?
What corals you want to have?
You could also go to the photo gallery and look at some tank pics, and read up on the lighting. I'm sure you can search: T5s or compacts ,or MH. But remember this You will want to upgrade on what ever you have. So try to get something that will hold you off for a while, or at least transfer and be enough lighting for a bigger tank.

[trr8288]

The tank is a standard 55 gal so I believe its 21" or 18" deep I can't remember. But it's only going to be a FOWLR tank but eventually I want to go to coral and make a reef tank but only after I know what I'm doing and can do it well. So I think i would wnat upgrade like a year the latest maybe. Budget wise I didn't want to spend a whole lot to start but if it is better to go with the more expensive lighting off the bat then i can make accomodations. I mean I'm 19 freshman in college still with my parents so the budget isn't big but I'm building the tank over some time and my parents offered to buy me stuff for christmas so I could have them buy more expensive lighting with in reason. So if anyone knows good lighting that i should get like not just T5's but actual brands I am open to suggestions.

[cd77]

If you can throw a few more dollars in, check out the Aquactinics TX5. Premium Aquatics and Aquarium Specialty both have them.

[jgiannini]

If you decide to use a canopy for your top rather than having it open with the light above, the MH/T5 retrofit kits give you lots more options. I got my retro's from hellolights.com.

[rafa316]

or you could try the cheap riskey way
http://cgi.ebay.com/48-Metal-Halide-...QQcmdZViewItem

[sruiz]

For the same price I saw a light fixture that had 2x250 metal halides and 4x65 atinics. Probably not some name brand but, cheap. Look for them on Ebay.