overkill on lighting????

[gotasplinter]

Just was wondering what you all thought about lighting overkill. I have a 75 gal. with 48" power compacts 2 daylight and 2 actinics. am looking to upgrade to possibly Nova Extreme HO Light Fixture - 8 x 54W - 4 Lunar - 48 in http://www.thatpetplace.com/pet/prod/204945/product.web
or this is a little cheaper in price but less lighting

Nova Extreme HO Light Fixture - 4 x 54W & 4 Lunar - 48 in http://www.thatpetplace.com/pet/prod/204900/product.web

Let me kno what you think thanks alot Lee

[tom-annette]

I had been thinking about getting the 4 bulb unit. I was told that it was a little low on Watts for SPS & LPS. I also found that this loght is not available from distributors at this time. The reason for this is they are redesigning the light.

Lately I have had other thoughts about going to the 8 bulb unit, Since I am placing my 75 in another location. By using the 8 bulb unit I will have all the light I would need. I also talked to a fiend that did get the 8 bulb unit and he thinks it is great.

My final thought I would say is decide on what you want to do with your aquarium and go from there.
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fish1
Tom.

[firecrackerbob]

Hey Gota,
I dont think that would be overkill at all... in fact if you are going to be doing SPS I think that you will want to go stronger.... I would need some more info about what you want to keep to make a educated reccomendation.

Not sure if your set on a fixture like your links, but if your willing to set up a hood you have alot of options... Personally, I only reccomend VHO, MH, or T-5 to people... I have used all, like the look, and believe you can get high growth under all. Personally my favorite is MH with VHO actinic. a close second being all T-5 ( but no cool shimmering )....

anyway, I would check out hello lights. you can a get a VHO retro to power up to two 48' bulbs for ~60 bucks, add two bulbs and its around 100. they also have the cheapest MH kits ive seen around....
http://hellolights.com/

I would stay away from TPP lighting unles your sure about this fixture. One of few areas that I criticize TPP on is their poor selection of lighting options. you can definitely find better products online...

hope this helps,
Eric

[kaptken]

I agree, FCB, on the hellolights VHO kits. I run 4 VHO on my 75. a few months back i upgraded from the two Fulham workhorse7 ballasts i had been running to a pair of the hellolights ARO ballasts to run my 4 VHO lamps. They are great. the run the lamps cooler and brighter with great color. Im real happy with them. My tank is overcrowded with SPS, tree leathers, schrooms and star polyps. they all grow very well under the 440 watts of VHO. nice colors too. You just cant beat VHO actinic to bring out the colors of corals andmake them shine. except maybe 400 watt 20K halides.

there have been many tanks of the month running 8 T5 lamp sets and doing great.

[cdangel0]

Originally posted by firecrackerbob
Hey Gota,
a close second being all T-5 ( but no cool shimmering )....

anyway, I would check out hello lights. you can a get a VHO retro to power up to two 48' bulbs for ~60 bucks, add two bulbs and its around 100. they also have the cheapest MH kits ive seen around....
http://hellolights.com/
Eric

With the right amount of surface agitation you can get some of the cool shimmering with T5s as well Much to my own suprise and satisfaction.

I just put a 6 bulb T5 unit on my 92 and am loving it. It's a Catalina fixture off Ebay (aquariumLights is the seller). No complaints at all - all the ocral seem to be enjoying it as well - much nicer look then I had with my PCs.

Craig

[reef 'n ale]

Craig is right on. I get "some" shimmer from my T5's. Not like when the halides are on, but it is shimmer.

Rob

[firecrackerbob]

T5s vs MHs is definitely a close call IMHO... I've seen both look spectacular. MH with VHO actinic seems just a bit crisper to me but with the drawback of higher heat/electric. T5s are almost very nearly as sharp, but lower heat/electric. I frequently recommend both avenues to people.
I was once the person who didn't want to spend the extra cash to go one of these routes, but madtownmax convinced me to go for T5s. I later added on a 70w MH... im glad he convinced me rather than going for the PC option....

Eric

[kaptken]

well, actually, a 54 watt T5 is pretty much the same as a 55 watt PC, that hasn't been bent or cut and spliced in half together. same watts and amps per lamp. the really big difference is a straight tube can be fitted with a much better reflector that sends most of the light down to the tank. twin tube PCs have a lot more strike back on the top from mostly poor reflectors. PCs are generally 5/8 OD,(T5) with some at 1/2 and 96 watts at 3/4 i think.

[firecrackerbob]

Huh... I haven't really thought of that... thanks Ken! That makes a lot of sense though as most of the info that I have read says that good individual reflectors is the key to T5 success.... Guess this is why!
Cheers
Eric