55gal Lighting suggestions

Kiefer · #1 12/12/2007, 08:40 AM

Hey guys Im fairly new to the world of reefing but have some expierence with a 30g i had with the eclipse hood and a 10000k retro light etc..

But now I am starting a 55 and am feeling a tad overwhelmed with all the different options.. It seems like Metal Halide is the way to go but there are sooo many companys that make MH lighting. What do you guys suggest for the best "bang for your buck"

Thanks
KS

luke33 · #2 12/12/2007, 09:27 AM

Your the perfect candidate for a t5 fixture. I would go with a tek 4x54w t5 fixture. It will allow you to keep anything anywhere. You can generally find them for 225-280. For bulb's i'd go with ati blue plus, ati aquablue, uvl aquasun, ati blue plus. All very good growth and color bulbs, that would be front to back. Pretty sure you can find all that from www.diyreef.com I don't think many will recomend mh's for your tank. Its overkill imo. You would have to do 2x250w mh's for a total of 500w and could have heat issues or you can use 220w of t5's and not have heat issues and have enough light for any coral you want.

Kiefer · #3 12/12/2007, 10:19 AM

great thanks for your quick response.. I didnt realize there would be that big of a heat issue with the MH. My big issue with my 30 was that it seemed like i could not get enough light to the bottom of the tank, im assuming, because I could not get any of my zoo's to survive down at the base and the rose kept moving to the top... so I wont have that issue with this lighting correct?
Thats not a bad price on DIY either! thanks.

now for a second thing i just realized i didnt ask in the first post, I am wanting some sort of "night lighting" , and again my newbie knowledge, am told that it is basicly just some LED lighting.. is that true? and is there somesort of premade kit available?

thanks again!

KS

luke33 · #4 12/12/2007, 10:37 AM

I think the only fixture you can get that's t5 only and led is the new current fixture. You can always just get a led strip light and throw it on there for a few bux. I know they sell teh cheap one's at www.aquatraders.com They work just fine. If you get t5's just make sure they have individual reflectors. There's quite a few options out there now. ATI, Aquacintics, Tek, Current

Kiefer · #5 12/12/2007, 10:56 AM

great thanks for you help luke!

barjam · #6 12/12/2007, 11:13 AM

The 55 is a perfect shape for T5s but be sure to check out some T5 tanks in person first. You may find (as I did) that reef tanks just don't look as good with T5 and you may find yourself a couple years later shelling out for a MH setup. Or heck maybe you will find that T5s look awesome to you.

As far as keeping anything anywhere I agree to a point. I have had success with keeping SPS in my tank (4x54) but the coloration has been poor on some (Purple Monti/Acros). Moving these right under the light didn't help a great deal. Acros are pale and purple montis are brown. Everything else seems to do well and grows pretty quick. I have yet to loose a coral under T5 thats for sure. My gut feeling is that if I would have overdriven my setup and/or added more bulbs I could have colored up those colors as they were on the verge.

stevedola · #7 12/12/2007, 12:15 PM

before some start condemning T5s ( there are many reasons for acros to brown) take a look in the SPS forum, there is a long thread with beautiful T5 lit tanks. Make your own judgement.

I personally love my aquatinics Tx5 fixture. colors are fantastic and growth is great.
For the cost initially and annually IMO they cant be beat for a tank your size.
Heres a shot of my clam and tricolor (very blurry) to see color and growth...that tri came from 2" frag and its been growing nicely.

Kiefer · #8 12/12/2007, 12:30 PM

wow great color.

so if i was to go with the 54x4 then i would want to get the 2 of the 12000k ATI aquablue and 2 of the True Actinic
or
would i want to pair the 2 12000k aquablue's and 2 of the Blue Plus'?

luke33 · #9 12/12/2007, 12:45 PM

Id go with my suggestion in my first comment. The actinic's are a waste and you want to utilize all your 4 bulb's.

mile sq. reefer · #10 12/12/2007, 01:21 PM

I'm a fan of MH. I use a Current Sunpod with 2x150w DE 14k lamps. No heat issues, good color and growth.

stevedola · #11 12/12/2007, 01:37 PM

blue plus have nice color and give you alittle extra par. might want to use an aqua sun in stead of 2 aqua blues. not pos., ask grimreefer in the t5 thread.

barjam · #12 12/12/2007, 01:43 PM

Quote:

before some start condemning T5s ( there are many reasons for acros to brown) take a look in the SPS forum, there is a long thread with beautiful T5 lit tanks. Make your own judgement.

I am not condeming them. I actually run exactly what was suggested on my tank (4x54). I just stated that the look isn't for everyone (lack of shimmer) and that he should make sure he could live without it.

4x54 simply does not have the intensity required to color up certain corals, period. So thats why I took exception to the "anything anywhere" statement. Most of the SPS I have tried have colored up fine (torts/birds nest/green slimer/monti digi/monto cap) but some will not color up under that much light. Certain acros and purple digi. Ask anyone purple digi takes a ton of light to color up. In my opinion 4x54 can not provide the required level of light (hopefully someone can prove me wrong!).

Quote:

I personally love my aquatinics Tx5 fixture. colors are fantastic and growth is great.
For the cost initially and annually IMO they cant be beat for a tank your size.
Heres a shot of my clam and tricolor (very blurry) to see color and growth...that tri came from 2" frag and its been growing nicely.

Quote:

Aquatinics Tx5 with modified IC 660 ballast

There is a *huge* difference between what you run and what is being suggested. If someone in here suggested that you could keep anything anywhere on a 75 with an Aquatinics TX5 that was being overdriven with an IC 660... I would totally agree.

barjam · #13 12/12/2007, 01:55 PM

Quote:

blue plus have nice color and give you alittle extra par. might want to use an aqua sun in stead of 2 aqua blues. not pos., ask grimreefer in the t5 thread.

Quote:

so if i was to go with the 54x4 then i would want to get the 2 of the 12000k ATI aquablue and 2 of the True Actinic
or
would i want to pair the 2 12000k aquablue's and 2 of the Blue Plus'?

Grim's current suggestion on a 4x setup is:

Blue Plus
Super Actinic
Aqua Sun
Blue Plus

I run:

Blue Plus
Super Actinic
AquaBlue
Blue Plus

and in the past I have ran:

BluePlus
AquaBlue
AquaBlue
BluePlus

Aquablues with blue pluses can tend to be somewhat monochromatic (they all peak at 450nm) but if you spice it up with a more daylight bulb (on a four bulb setup) it becomes harder to get rid of the pinks/yellows if they are too strong. In my case I tried to swap in a GE 6500k bulb and it was too yellow and the blue pluses could not compensate. I have heard accounts of people being unable to factor out the Aqua Sun's pinks... no experience there.

Also I found that without a true actinic bulb certain greens get washed out to the point they do not show (hydnophora for example) so I ended up sacrificing par and putting the actinic in.

That is one nice/bad thing about T5s the light can really be tailored to your tastes.

stevedola · #14 12/12/2007, 02:32 PM

I have no expirence with 4xt5 that intend on keeping acros. I was simply saying that T5s can do a very nice job on sps. I love my aquatinics...maybe a tx5 would be better on your 55g than a 4 bulb unit. You would be able to have 5 bulbs to obtain the color you want.

stevedola · #15 12/12/2007, 02:38 PM

barjam, your current bulb setup, do you like the colors when it comes to lps softies zoas? I posted in the other t5 lighting thread about my fathers tank that has softies/zoas with a 4xt5. Using geisemann bulbs but they are too yellowish...I was thinking of ordering (for him) the combo,
blue+
aqua sun
aqua blue
blue+

sorry for the hijack.

luke33 · #16 12/12/2007, 03:10 PM

[QUOTE]Originally posted by barjam
[B]Grim's current suggestion on a 4x setup is:

Blue Plus
Super Actinic
Aqua Sun
Blue Plus

Pretty sure if you asked grim what the best growth would be for a 4x54w and nice colors he would suggest you pull out the superactinic and ad an aquablue or similar bulb. The SA doesnt do anything for growth.

DarG · #17 12/12/2007, 03:23 PM

Kiefer ... while I agree that halide isnt the best solution for the 55, you can still run halides effectively on your tank. The 55 isnt very deep and a pair of 150 watt halides would do the trick. But better yet, a combination of halides and T5 either in a ready made combo fixture or a DIY set-up would work. Not sure what your budget is but Current USA and Aquamedic both make combination HQI + T5 fixtures that are relatively affordable.
The halide reflectors are small in these fixtures as they are in most combo fixtures but with the narrow width of the tank, coverage will be no probelm at all. There is a recent thread on the Current USA Outer Orbit with T5 fixture. Should be on page 1 or 2. It may be worth a look to see how users like the fixture. I used one myself for a while and coverage was good on my 90 gallon. It's a nice "entry level" combo fixture. Also has white and blue LED moonlighting (seperately switchable) which is a cool extra.

I have nothing against T5's and lots of successful reef tanks are kept under T5 very successfully. But, I just think that the sharpness or crispness of the light emitted by halides is a characteristic that flourescents just doesnt have. That and the shimmer. Flourescents dont have the halide shimmer. Those two characteristics arent necessary to lighting a reef, they are just subjective preferences. But I couldnt go back to all T5 or any flourescent after having halides. Hopefully LED's, which are the future of lighting, will reproduce these two traits atleast as well as halide.

Anyway, if you were liking the idea of halides, check into them further. Even though it may not be the most efficient way to light the 55, they are still a viable option if efficiency isnt a top priority and the attributes of halides are appealing to you.

luke33 · #18 12/12/2007, 03:35 PM

Yea, i'd agree with Darg, basically both will work well, its up to your preference on t5's vs mh's. Personally i love the t5's and i'm currently changing over to all t5's. I don't know why people love the shimmer so much, but some do. I like the color combo's and the full coverage of the t5's. Its all in what you like in this hobby, many successful ways.

FWIW, the reason i suggested tek's is because he was looking for the best bang for his buck and is relatively new. Simplicity and something that was affordable and worked well. If I was going to tell him to get the top of the line i would have suggested the ATI's.

barjam · #19 12/12/2007, 03:52 PM

Quote:

barjam, your current bulb setup, do you like the colors when it comes to lps softies zoas? I posted in the other t5 lighting thread about my fathers tank that has softies/zoas with a 4xt5. Using geisemann bulbs but they are too yellowish...I was thinking of ordering (for him) the combo,
blue+
aqua sun
aqua blue
blue+

In my opinion you wouldn't get the actinic pop on that setup, it would be quite white. I had basically that setup on mine for a long time because I was trying to maximize par but I wasn't happy with it (too white). What I ended up with does a nice job of poping corals especially LPS/Zoas and flourescing softies.

Quote:

Pretty sure if you asked grim what the best growth would be for a 4x54w and nice colors he would suggest you pull out the superactinic and ad an aquablue or similar bulb. The SA doesnt do anything for growth.

If you asked him what would be best for growth he would say all Aqua Suns but the look would suck.

The SA is 62% of the AquaBlue's par and 68% of the par of the Blue Plus so it does add to growth. Also don't forget that chlorophyll has an absortion peak at 420nm. Personally I won't derail this guy's thread further but I believe a lot of research that has been done on MH bulbs has been misapplied to flourescents.

Blue+
Blue+
AquaBlue
AquaBlue

1294 par

Blue+
Super Actinic
AquaBlue
Blue+

1,168 par

(bulb values added together using Grim's numbers, not actual total par measurements)

Adding the actinic bulb actually help the coloration (not just visibly, if that makes sense) of a few of my corals particularly hydnophora. And it visibly helped all of them.

Oh, don't try:

BluePlus
AquaBlue
BluePlus
BluePlus

In hopes to maximize blue/par. It is a horrible combo.

luke33 · #20 12/12/2007, 04:00 PM

Keifer, there are many many combo's out there for t5's or mh's and many that will work well for you. Happy Reefing and do what feels comfortable to you.

All Aquasun's wouldn't be the best for growth by the way. But i don't want to flood the thread any more with nonsense.

95accord · #21 12/12/2007, 04:33 PM

i have T5HO on my 55gal FOWLR

2x54 (1 power glo and 1x actinic)

definatly not dissapointed.

Kiefer · #22 12/12/2007, 05:06 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by luke33
Keifer, there are many many combo's out there for t5's or mh's and many that will work well for you. Happy Reefing and do what feels comfortable to you.

All Aquasun's wouldn't be the best for growth by the way. But i don't want to flood the thread any more with nonsense.

I really am liking the look and the price of the Tek T-5 so odds are I am going to pick one of those up here pretty soon.

Thanks for the help everyone!

KS

jeff Ferguson · #23 12/12/2007, 05:16 PM

I runn 2X250 watt metal halids with 15000 k xm bulbs on my 55 gallon there is a pic in my profile if ya want to look.i payed $320 for that set up..